Flightless
by TheFuzzyKiwiFruit
Summary: As one of the last of her race, Aureth thought herself doomed to wander Middle Earth alone for eternity. A chance encounter with a grey wizard leads her to joining the dwarf company of Thorin Oakenshield on the promise that she'll receive 1/15th share of Smaug's horde. Little does she know that the treasure will become the least of her concerns. [Thranduil x Fairy!OC x Thorin]
1. Concerning Fairies

_A/N: Lately I've just been getting so many new ideas... please forgive me for starting new stories without finishing my others ;n;_

 _Anyway, this story is **not** a prequel to Simple Gifts, in case anyone is here from my other Lord of the Rings story. It is a total stand alone story that takes place during the Hobbit and some time after. I have created an original race in this story, and this chapter is just an introduction to the race that my OC will belong to. The real story line starts next chapter :)_

* * *

 _Concerning Fairies_

The fairies, who called themselves the _Avika,_ were the second children of Eru Iluvatar and were an ancient race of immortal beings often overshadowed by the beauty and wisdom of the firstborn-the elves. They, the fairies, could naturally live for millennia, survive very severe injury and illness, and did not age after maturing, but it was not impossible to kill them through violence. While not as fair or intelligent as elves, the _Avika_ were blessed with another gift: wings to fly.

Fairy wings sprouted from between the shoulder blades, glowed and billowed like fire, and came in all shapes and sizes, some small and iridescent while others expansive and smoky. When not used, they can be retracted out of sight and for all fairies, the wings were considered the most precious possessions one could have. Of all the humanoid races in Middle Earth, the fairies were the most wild and free-spirited; guardians of the realm of sky.

Not only were wings a thing a beauty and an symbol of freedom, but they were a means of defense as well. Those with wings that could hardened into tough crystals at will-bearers of these wings are regarded as the _Tharn-_ could outlast almost any attacker; those with wings from which small shards of crystal could be shot were called the _Thirist_ and were considered the most powerful in offensive fights; wings with the lightest weight and the most flexibility belonged to the fastest and most skilled flyers-the _Aewen_.

By nature, fairies were truthful and straightforward folk, often hasty and tending to prefer getting a point across clearly rather than trying to spare feelings. Their language was articulate-not as harsh as Dwarvish but not as pleasant as Elvish either-and spoken rapidly, making members of this race seem as if they were always in a hurry. Despite being slightly temperamental and a bit untactful with words, fairies were independent, dangerously adventurous, and some of the most reliable people one would ever meet.

Fairies were not easily killed by the weapons of humans, elves, or dwarves. Oftentimes it took one fairy to kill another. Little conflict existed between members of the _Avika_ race in early times but once dealings with mankind began in the First Age, the unity of the race tore apart slowly as humans came into disagreements with one another and as a result, fairies chose allies as well, fighting alongside their respective human friends.

Among all the races of Middle Earth, the fairies were the rarest; only one fairy existed for every two hundred men, only one fairy for every one hundred dwarves, only one fairy for every ninety or so elves. In time, with a population that had never been particularly large, the fairies destroyed themselves fighting the battles of men.

By the start of the Second Age, few fairies existed on the face of Middle Earth, and the race had gained a reputation as a savage people who slaughtered their own kinsmen. Though once very social creatures, the fairies who were still alive learned to lean toward acting as lone wolves, distrustful of even members of their own race.

But dwelling alone was dangerous for fairies, and advances in weaponry caused mankind to become greedy. Grouping together was one of the best ways fairies stayed safe from hunters but once alone, humans could easily shoot down or trap a fairy. In the first centuries of the Second Age, fairy hunting was a sport that brought great wealth to its participants for the beauty and pliability of the wings were thought to be useful. Once a fairy's wings were removed by force, the wings did not grow back. Thus, for the sake of surviving, the remaining _Avika_ went into hiding or retracted their wings for years, blending in with the society of humans.

The race of fairies never received a great ring of power, for the race was practically nonexistent by the time Sauron of Mordor rose to power. What was left of the _Avika_ refused to assist in the war against Mordor and once Sauron was defeated by the last alliance of elves and men, the fairies disappeared from the records of history altogether.


	2. Luck

_Luck_

It's been a long time since Aureth was this unlucky.

Seven. Seven reeking, filthy human hunters have cornered her.

Normally there would only be three or four at a time, in which case Aureth could probably find an opening and flee or just kill the hunters on the spot. She had done one or the other so many times in the numerous years of her life. Lately she'd been getting bolder, choosing to slaughter rather than run and come to think of it, it must have been her part in the recent disappearances of fairy hunters that have caused such a large group of them to form for protection.

She couldn't fight so many at once. The last time she encountered so many together-eight, to be exact-which was centuries ago, she had barely escaped with her life and sacrificed a wing in the process.

Aureth never stayed in one place for too long. She had to keep moving in order to avoid attracting attention. Unlike some of her kinsmen, who have chosen to blend in with humans, she wasn't fond of hiding her wings for long periods of time and though she could no longer fly after the eight-hunters encounter, the idea of her one remaining wing becoming weak from disuse disgusted her. If she only had one wing left, she had to make that one strong enough to make up for the one she lost.

Stay two days too long in the same area and this is what Aureth attracts: hunters thirsty from the rarity of fairy wings. Now that the fairy population was so pathetic, the value of their wings had shot up even higher than before on the market of the humans.

The men chuckled to themselves with delight, seeing the flash of fear in her liquid eyes and understanding that their divide-and-herd plan had succeeded in trapping their prey.

Even as they slowly closed in around her, Aureth did not bring out her wing yet, still holding on to a stupid shred of hope that she may be able to pose as an ordinary woman. Her ears were minimally pointed and small, easily hidden beneath her straight, uneven dark hair. If she could convince the hunters that they were mistaken about her race, perhaps a chance at escape would appear.

"Where're your wings?" one of the hunters barked, stepping closer and raising a crossbow to aim at her.

"I don't have any," she answered quickly and monotonously. "I'm afraid you've mistaken me for someone else."

A second man snorted, clearly not believing a single word. "Nice try, girly. Even the way you talk gives it away. You're not used to speaking the Common Tongue, are you?"

Her jaw visibly clenched, and she didn't answer. She should have slowed her speech and articulated less harshly. The fact that these men recognized the accent meant that they weren't like the pitiable amateur fairy trackers Aureth often killed. Most men took to fairy hunting out of desperation for money. Rarely nowadays did men dedicate such a great deal of effort into hunting properly.

Trying to control her panic, her eyes darted at her surroundings, looking for anything at all that could help her, but her searching was in vain as she stood at the rocky base of a large hill with boulders and ledges every few meters. No trees to act as cover. No shadows to hide in. The sun beat down on her and the hunters from high above.

"Come on, bring out the wings," the first hunter coaxed, waving his crossbow a little. "Maybe if they're not that nice looking, we'll let you go."

" _Liar_ ," she growled, now totally hostile after chances of a peaceful escape had slipped away.

Some wings were prettier than others, but there was no doubt that all fairy wings were beautiful in the eyes of mankind, and Aureth's would be no exception. Even if her wings _were_ ugly, she didn't believe for a second that it would be reason enough for the hunters to release her. Fairy wings, pretty or not, could be made into good weapons, for they were alive even after being separated from their bearers. If her wing doesn't become a decoration piece in a wealthy human's house, it will become a prized piece of weaponry. But wings could only be harvested while a fairy was still alive, so the hunters will do all they can to make her reveal her wings before doing anything that would kill her before her wings could be cut off.

The first hunter glared darkly at her and shrugged nonchalantly, "Let's see if I can force you then." He pointed the crossbow at her and pulled the trigger without warning.

Aureth cursed and dodged, barely restraining herself from releasing her wing on instinct for self-defense. Another arrow flew at her from another direction, and she dodged again, the arrow grazing her arm this time.

Two hunters came at her from opposing directions with an axe, clearly not worried about hurting her too badly knowing that fairies could endure injury better than any other race.

Not able to control herself anymore in the face of certain doom if she didn't not properly defend herself, Aureth's one wing sprouted from the rightmost region between her shoulder blades and blocked one attack while she dodged the other.

" _There_ it is," the first hunter nodded with satisfaction but as he looked at it longer, his face fell slightly. "…only one, eh?"

While her right wing was large enough to almost completely wrap around her body, glowing red, and whipped in the wind like a great inferno stemmed from her upper back, her left one was merely the size of a pathetic camp fire, flickering ever so slightly as if it could blow out any second.

"Can't even fly, I see," the hunter cackled, taunting her. "Where'd you lose the other one?"

Aureth spat a curse at them in her own language which they did not understand and only laughed at.

"Well, this makes our work a little easier," he decided quickly after observing her one good wing. "Even just one wing will fetch a nice price."

A growl erupted from her throat, and she tensed, her wing growing even bigger in anticipation for the fight. If she was going to be defeated here, she was definitely going to take as many of them down with her as she could.

Her eyes locked on the hunter closest to her who is to be her first target but as they surrounded her more tightly, Aureth's gaze caught a small gray shape over the shoulder of the man, moving across the field in the distance.

Within seconds, her keen eyes discerned that it was an old man on a horse, wearing a ridiculous pointy hat and riding in her general direction. The staff he held stirred a memory at the back of Aureth's ancient mind, and she made a bet at that moment, a bet that the old man wouldn't assist the hunters and instead save her.

" _Help! Help me please!_ " Aureth screamed, the loudness and suddenness effectively startling the hunters. Her voice echoed on the nearby cliffs and when the old man's head turned in their direction curiously, her wings fizzled out of sight immediately, and she made a show of dropping to the ground and continued to cry for help, practically wailing and shrieking her lungs out.

Someone shot her in the back, the arrow grazing her side just below her shoulder blades, in an attempt to shut her up, but she just gritted her teeth hard from the pain for a split second before resuming her tantrum.

"What's the bitch d-"

The sound of approaching hoof beats diverted the hunters' attentions to the old man who had quickly rode up to their location, his brows furrowed in concern. Getting off his horse, he hastily stepped over some boulders to get to them.

"Gandalf…?" one of the hunters squeaked in surprise, lowering his weapon as the said man approached.

For a moment, Aureth thought she'd lost the bet because apparently, the hunters knew the old man.

"And what might you gentlemen be doing to that defenseless woman?" Gandalf questioned with disapproving eyes.

"Oh, n-no, you don't understand!" one of the men explained, his gaze darting to Gandalf and then to Aureth and then back to Gandalf. "This here is a fairy, Gandalf. Just one arrow won't kill it yet."

"Please, sir… I don't know what they're talking about," she whimpered as she gaze up at Gandalf and stayed on the ground, hoping that she looked as pitiable as she wanted to seem. Rarely did she use deception to escape predators, but she always told herself: _surviving is worth anything_. "I was just trying to get to Bree to visit family and these men-"

"Shut your mouth!" a hunter raised his weapon to give her a jab.

Gandalf didn't say anything for a moment that felt like ages to Aureth as he stared at her with unreadable blue eyes. Aureth had never seen him before, and the look he gave her was not pitying but calculating. He had no reason to defend her, she knew, and the longer he stayed in silence the more her throat constricted with disappointment.

Suddenly, seeming to have made up his mind, the old man bent down to get a closer look at her face, "No, wait, I believe I _recognize_ her."

Surprise and hope caused Aureth's eyes to widen minimally, which the hunters did not notice as they were too busy gaping at the elderly man. Again, she dug through the farthest reaches of her memory to find no indication that she'd ever met Gandalf, so clearly the gray-cladded man was either conveniently mistaken or purposefully lying.

Rubbing his beard thoughtfully, Gandalf nodded to himself, "Yes, I believe I do remember speaking to a family in Bree the other day waiting for their niece to visit. Erm, what might your name be?"

If Aureth hesitated, the loose story she have woven would tear. A split second decision allowed her to blurt out the most human-sounding name she could think of. "Elise. It's Elise."

"Yes, Elise," Gandalf continued to nod, "That's the name."

Definitely lying.

Aureth let out a quiet breath of relief, her entire body slumping a little, while Gandalf smiled amicably at the hunters, "If you gentlemen wouldn't mind, I'll just be taking the lady back to her family now."

"But we saw her wings!" one of the hunters protested loudly as Gandalf helped Aureth up from the ground (she took extra care to act as if she was in more pain than she actually was). "She can't be human!"

"Wings, you say?" the old man repeated, laughing an innocent laugh. "I'm afraid some of you may be seeing things. Had too much to drink before coming out, perhaps? After all, fairies went extinct _ages_ ago."

There were more protests, but none of the hunters seemed to have the courage to directly challenge Gandalf's judgement. He must be well respected member of mankind.

Aureth was assisted onto the horse and as Gandalf bid farewell to the hunters, she held on to the back of his cloak for security during the ride.

The old man spurred the horse forward, and Aureth looked back out of the corner of her eyes at the hunters they left behind.

Although she was comforted to be leaving their company and to have most likely just escaped her doom once again, Aureth's mind was already at work in coming up with her next course of action. She could not trust this old man that had just save her. For all she knew, he could be taking to a place with even more people who wanted to cut off her wing.

She decided that once they've covered some distance, she would flee. Even an infant fairy knew that it's far easier to escape one old man than seven experienced hunters.


	3. Offer

_Offer_

When the hunters shrunk to tiny specks in the distance, Aureth narrowed her eyes at the back of the old man who had saved her and then shifted her gaze to the wooden staff he held at his side as he rode. The design at the top of the staff tickled a faraway memory in her mind again, but having been alive since the First Age, there were simply things she could not fully recall.

"Do you often help lost women?" she muttered deliberately, trying to subtly get information out of him and decide if he would be a threat later should she spare his life this time.

Despite the wind rushing past them, Gandalf heard her, but did not turn around as he chuckled a little, "Not exactly, I don't often come across them. You were truly very unfortunate to have run into those men."

He seemed to be careful with what he said too, and it made Aureth clench her teeth with irritation.

"… But," the old man continued before she could respond, his blue eyes looking back at her with an unnerving knowingness, "you are not a woman, are you?"

Aureth pretended to be clueless and scoffed, "What? Are you accusing me of being a man?"

"I've lived long enough to know a fairy when I see one," Gandalf replied with a smile that only made her tense immediately. "Other than wings, I've learned to look for fox-like eyes as well."

Fairies of old tended to have ever so slightly slitted pupils and liquid irises, but Aureth always liked to think that, genetically, she leaned more toward normal, round pupils, but apparently the old man was observant enough to see their slight misshape.

Unconsciously touching the area around her eyes with a worried hand, she pressed her lips into a hard line and hesitated to say anything. She _really_ hated people who were observant.

Just as she feared, the old man knew more about her kind than Aureth was comfortable with.

A forest was fast approaching and as soon as they rode into woodland, where it was easiest to fight if she had to, Aureth leapt from the back of the horse, using her wing to parachute her fall a little before quickly retracting it out of sight.

Gandalf, feeling her weight missing, pulled on the reigns of the horse to stop its gallop and glanced over his shoulder at her.

"Thank you for your help," she spoke without obvious appreciation, her light grey eyes watching him closely for any sign of aggression, "but I think I'll be on my way now."

Squinting at her a little, he turned his horse around to face her but did not approach for he sensed the tension she had created and knew that once the fairy started attacking, she probably won't stop to listen to reason. Though he did not know which of the three branches of the _Avika_ she belonged to, he didn't want to risk her turning out to be a _Thirist_.

"And where, might I ask, will you be going?" Gandalf asked at last. Something about his tone of voice made Aureth suspect that he already knew she had nowhere to go and was only asking to see what her response would be.

"To Bree to visit my dear aunt and uncle, of course," she replied drily.

But Gandalf didn't even crack a smile at her deadpan joke. "What is your name?"

Aureth bristled unsubtly, not expecting him to react like so, "Elise."

"No. Your _real_ name."

"Why did you help me?"

"Well, I think the answer to that would be obvious," he replied instantly and blinked at her with concern in his eyes. "You were calling for help, and there was no reason why I couldn't help you. And as someone who is highly opposed to the selling of fairy wings, thwarting those hunters was just a little bit satisfying."

Aureth hadn't moved an inch from where she had landed after jumping off the horse and continued to stare at him, trying to read him. "Is that all?"

A moment of silence passed as Gandalf regarded her in a similar manner as she was him before the old man sighed, slowly getting off his horse, "I see that years of living in social isolation has made you distrustful. Allow me to properly introduce myself. I am Gandalf the Grey, one of the Maia."

The smallest twitch of one of Aureth's eyebrows was the only indication that she took what he had just said seriously. The carved design on the top of Gandalf's staff flashed in her mind, and she recalled that wizards had come to Middle Earth after the start of the Third Age, but still she was not without her suspicions. "You expect me to believe that without proof?"

Raising a brow as if he was taking on an interesting challenge, Gandalf's gaze shifted to glance at his staff.

Aureth gasped in alarm when a small explosion of yellow fireworks appeared above her head. After realizing that the explosion was harmless and created by Gandalf just to prove a point, her eyes when she looked at him shone with a light that was a lot less calm than before, like she had just understood that the old man may be able to put up a fight with her.

"I know what you're thinking," he drawled, "and no, I'm not going to fight you."

That did little to pacify her as her stance remained tense and ready to respond to an assault.

"In fact, I'm happy that I found you. You see, I would like to give you an offer," Gandalf continued, his bright eyes searching her face for indications of interest while she did her best to hide any curiosity she may have as much as possible. "I want to invite you on an adventure."

The look of dull confusion that crossed her face was enough to tell him that at least she was listening to him even though she pretended as if she wasn't.

"I've been gathering together a company, a company to go on a quest and at the moment, all we are missing is a scout. I'd like to hire you for that service."

She made a face and turned away from him, speaking coldly, "I don't know where you got that idea from. I have no experience scouting."

Gandalf smiled, looking as though he figured she would react this way, "I heard from hobbits of the Shire that a fairy passed by their lands not long ago, and I thought to myself, 'what better individual is there to act as a scout than a keen-sighted fairy?'"

"What about an elf?" Aureth recommended and not with a hint of sarcasm.

"Oh no," the old man objected, shaking his head. "I've already suggested that to the leader of our company and…" Shifting from one foot to the other, he hesitated before going on, "Ah, well, he refuses to allow me to hire an elf for the task. Besides, a scout with wings can do the job better."

Gandalf's hopeful beam was harshly rejected as Aureth suddenly glared at him out of the corner of her eyes which were practically narrowed to slits. "I can't fly, if that's what you mean," she bit the words out bitterly as if they stung her tongue.

Mild surprise crossed his face, the first time Aureth had seen him caught off guard throughout their entire conversation, but Gandalf judged by the look on her countenance that he shouldn't ask for details about why she couldn't perform the fundamental action that made the _Avika_ who they were.

"What is the purpose of the quest?"

The voluntary question she asked made Gandalf perk up slightly with hope, "To retake the Lonely Mountain in the north."

"The home of the dragon?" Aureth breathed, pupils dilating as she remembered the news of the appearance of Smaug near the old kingdom of Erebor reaching her ears some decades ago. She had been wandering the Iron Hills then and never actually saw the beast, but the stories of the desolation it wrought on the dwarf kingdom and a nearby human city was enough to discourage her from travelling to that general region. Only people who had death-wishes even _considered_ going there.

Gandalf nodded, "Yes, for now, it is the home of Smaug the Terrible, but the quest is to take it back from him and restore the rule of the Mountain King."

"That dragon _obliterated_ Erebor and Dale. You will never defeat him."

"But if we do," the wizard lowering his voice to purposely keep the fairy in suspense, "all the wealth he hordes falls back into the hands of the King Under the Mountain. And the humans living near that mountain may rejoice that the dragon is dead."

"I don't want to do any favors for the humans."

Gandalf frowned, disappointed, but didn't give up, "Then, perhaps you'll be interested payment by the treasure?"

Even Aureth could not react fast enough to stop the tiniest hint of her attentiveness from showing on her face at the mention of obtaining riches. A twitch of the brow, a widening of the eyes, a subtle turn of the head toward the wizard; none were missed by Gandalf.

"I did say I'll be _hiring_ you, did I not?" the wizard smiled impishly, taking a couple of steps toward Aureth to which she didn't react to. "Members of the company shall receive an equal share of the treasure inside the mountain. That will be one-fifteenth of the wealth for you."

The wealth of the Lonely Mountain was so vast that even a fifteenth share was bound to equate to a large sum of treasure. With it, Aureth could afford to build a home for herself, one that protected her and could protect anyone she wanted to foster. She could stop her wanderings and settle down wherever she wanted and build that home somewhere where she wouldn't have to be on alert at all times. She could sleep on a real bed and buy new clothes, nothing extravagant, but at least enough so that she could wear something clean every day. She could hire guards if she wanted to defend her home and everyone inside and eat good food again, like the food she once ate at the court of the last Fairy Queen so long ago.

"You promise me a fifteenth share of the treasure?" Aureth spoke quietly, directly catching Gandalf's gaze for the first time. Up until then, she had never looked him squarely in the eyes. At that point, the wizard knew he needn't say more for he had already won her over.

"Provided you survive the journey, you have my word as well as the word of our leader, Thorin Oakenshield," Gandalf bowed his head sincerely.

"His name is familiar."

"I'm not surprised you think so. You'll meet him and the rest of the company in the Shire at Bag End tomorrow night. Look for this symbol on the door of our host." Gandalf pointed his staff at a nearby tree and magically carved a character, made up of three straight lines, into the bark.

The mark glowed faintly with a blue light and disappeared after a few seconds, but Aureth had it engraved in her memory by then. She tore her gaze from the tree to see Gandalf walking back to his horse and climbing on its back.

"We will see each other again, at the home of Mr. Bilbo Baggins," he smiled as he situated himself on the saddle and turned his horse around to face the forest again. Then, almost as an afterthought, he called over his shoulder, "Oh, and please do be polite to him, Mr. Baggins, I mean. He's a bit of a sensitive fellow, but truly a good hobbit."

Aureth wore a skeptical expression, her response coming out like a question. "I'll try."

Gandalf gave her one last nod, "That'd be it, then. I'd best be on my way to inform the others. Good day to you, 'Elise.'"

"Aureth."

He frowned, not quite catching what she said.

"My name is Aureth," she repeated, louder, her gaze the most honest it's been since Gandalf met her.

Smiling, he amended, "Good day to you, Aureth."

The wizard's horse, carrying him, galloped into the forest, and she watched until he was out of sight.

* * *

 _A/N: Thank you for reading. And thanks for the support on this story that only had two chapters, one of which was an expository chapter. I'll keep doing my best writing for you all :)_

 _Next time: Party at Bilbo's house, guys. It's going to be great. Enough said._


	4. Bag End

_Bag End_

This wasn't the first time Aureth had been to the Shire, but nonetheless she attracted some strange looks from its small residents as she walked along the dirt path that supposedly led to the house of Bilbo Baggins (some old hobbit from the edge of town had pointed her in the direction).

By the time she reached the end of the road, the sun had completely set, and she had already accidentally trampled through someone's garden - the thing was so damn small that she didn't even realize she stepped in it until the owner said so - almost tripped over a ridiculously low and obscure fence, and made a hobbit child cry just by scowling at him for staring at her.

The symbol Gandalf has shown her in the woods marked the newly painted green door of a hobbit-hole at the end of the dirt path. Warm yellow light streamed out of circular windows along the house, faintly lighting up the gardens that surrounded it, and from the rich aroma that drifted from within the hobbit-hole, Aureth was sure that dinner was prepared. Asides from the chirping of crickets, the home was quiet and peaceful.

She found the doorbell and gave it a push, holding it down for longer than necessary, and waited. At first she heard silence which was then followed by hasty footsteps as though the host only just made up his mind about answering the door.

When the green door swung open, a middle aged hobbit wearing a hastily thrown on robe stood in the entrance hall, and Aureth could practically pinpoint the exact moment when his expression of curiosity quickly turned to shock as he had to tilt his head back to meet her eyes.

"Hello," Aureth deadpanned, raising an eyebrow at him.

He let out a little noise like a startled whimper but quickly regained his composer, tied his robe a little tighter, and stood taller in an attempt to look presentable. "Uh - hello to you as well." Judging from his askew clothing, he wasn't expecting visitors, and Aureth suspected that she may have interrupted his meal because a napkin was still tucked into his collar.

"I'm Aureth. May I come in?"

Though still looking puzzled at her appearance, the hobbit uncomfortably cleared his throat and smiled politely, "A-ah, well, of course." He opened the door wider and allowed the fairy to step in.

"Mr. Bilbo Baggins, am I right?" Aureth had to duck to get past the doorway and a small chandelier hanging over the entrance hall prevented her from standing totally upright. Because the hobbit-hole was exceedingly cozy and warm, she removed the long, thin scarf and the old, grey overcoat she wore, unaware of the skeptical look the hobbit gave her as he closed the door.

After fidgeting for a moment while Aureth roamed her eyes around the house, Bilbo seemed to work up the courage to question what was going on, "Uh - pardon my bluntness, but what are you doing here?"

"I'm not exactly sure myself," she responded casually, mistaking his question for a rhetorical one. Then, she proceeded to shake her head and mutter to herself exasperatedly about "dragon" and "king" and "tricky old wizard."

The hobbit nodded once as if he understood but in reality, he had no idea what she meant. However, his confusion didn't cause him to totally forget his manners as a host to his - albeit unexpected and uninvited - guest. "Right, well… uh, may I take your coat for you?" he offered.

It was a common act of civilized courtesy, and the guest was expected to accept and hand over their coat, but the astoundingly long amount of time it took for Aureth to decide whether or not to give Bilbo her coat and scarf told the hobbit that his guest was more than a little eccentric.

Aureth thought for a few seconds before placing her coat in Bilbo's arms, "I suppose I am early. I'll probably be here for a while, waiting for the others to show up."

Bilbo blinked at her, "I-I'm sorry, what?"

The doorbell rang again as if on cue, and Aureth tilted her head at the door knowingly while Bilbo's face fell and slight panic flashed in his eyes. While the hobbit cautiously approached the door again in order to answer it, Aureth wandered deeper into the house and found Bilbo's dining room where a grilled and seasoned fish sat in a plate on the table, emitting a delicious scent.

For Aureth, a meal prepared as nicely as the fish was so rare that she hadn't eaten one in possibly decades. The rich aroma drew her closer to the table and she reached for the fork that laid nearby but was interrupted as a short but bulky, dark bearded man trudged into the room followed by a horrified Bilbo who appeared to be struggling to carry both Aureth's and the dwarf's coats.

"Ah, supper," the dwarf's eye lit up when he saw the fish and despite being shorter than Aureth, his bulk unintentionally but easily shoved the slim fairy away from the table as he approached. "You must be the scout. I'm surprised he was able to find a fairy for the task. Dwalin, at your service."

The look on Bilbo's face as the dwarf helped himself to the fish told Aureth that the hobbit was as equally scandalized about the turn of events as she was, though for slightly different reasons.

"D-do you know him?" Bilbo demanded quietly, talking to her while trying to subtly point in Dwalin's direction.

"Not at all," she shook her head and backed away from the mess the dwarf was making as he consumed the fish. Now that she saw Dwalin eating the fish without permission, she realized how impolite it would have been if she'd done the same. She did say that she would be nice to Bilbo and quite frankly, a hobbit throwing a fit was not something she wanted to deal with after what happened earlier in the day. Her eyes scanned the room, searching for any meat she could eat, but when she couldn't find much, she just settled on some biscuits. "Mr. Baggins, may I have some of those."

Bilbo followed her gaze and saw the plate of stacked said pastries sitting next to the window, his eyes widening in surprise that Aureth had the decency to ask. "Oh, uh, yes," he offered the plate to her, and she took one biscuit from the top before wandering off to another part of the house. The hobbit moved to follow her but quickly decided from first impressions that she was probably the least likely out of his two guests to break something in the house, so he decided that he'd better stay with the dwarf.

Dwalin continued to tear the fish apart with his teeth, and Bilbo stood by, watching with disgust when Dwalin proceeded to eat the fish head too, a part that wasn't usually consumed, at least not in hobbit custom. After swallowing the fish head, the dwarf spoke him his deep, gruff voice, startling Bilbo who had started staring off into blank space wondering what his night had become, "Mm, very good, this. Any more?"

"What?" the hobbit snapped out of his daze before realizing what Dwalin meant. "Oh, uh, yes, yes. Help yourself." Trying very hard to keep his annoyance under control, he picked up the plate of biscuits and set it in front of Dwalin, but not before grabbing one for himself for he had the feeling there won't be many left after Dwalin's done with them.

As expected, after nodding with approval, Dwalin proceeded to stuff his face, getting crumbs everywhere.

Bilbo fidgeted some more, shifting his weight from one foot to the other and occasionally leaning forward to try and get a glimpse of what Aureth was doing in the other room. "Um… it's just…" he started in is most amicable voice, glancing at Dwalin, "I wasn't _expecting_ company."

As if planned again, the pleasant sound of the doorbell jingled throughout the house, causing Bilbo to look up and freeze in alarm.

"Want me to get that?" Aureth, looking quite bored, poked her head into the chamber from the sitting room when she noticed that Bilbo wasn't making any move to answer it.

"N-no, I'll get it…" Bilbo muttered, at last making his way to the entrance hall.

An old, plump, white bearded dwarf that greatly resembled Dwalin beamed and bowed at Bilbo when he opened the door, "Balin, at your service."

The hobbit stared at him, unblinkingly, "Good evening."

Not seeming to notice Bilbo's discomfort, the white bearded dwarf nodded with agreement and looked out at the starry night sky, "Yes, yes, it is, though I think it might rain later. Am I late?"

"Late for what?" asked Bilbo as he squinted at Balin.

Instead of answering, Balin let out a laugh when he saw Dwalin in the sitting room trying to dig out more biscuits from a jar. "Evening, brother! Heh, heh…" Entering the house uninvited, he walked over to clap his brother on the shoulder.

Dwalin smiled delightedly and abandoned the biscuit jar, "Oh, by my beard, you're shorter and wider than last we met!"

" _Wider_ , not shorter," Balin corrected amicably, "sharp enough for both of us."

Though the dwarves burst into laughter and then proceeded to head-butt their foreheads together in what seemed like a bizarre show of affection, Aureth and Bilbo looked on with deadpan expressions. "Uh-excuse me," the hobbit tried to interject as the dwarves finished their greeting, "sorry, I hate to interrupt, but I'm not entirely sure you all are… in the right house?"

"No, no, this is the right house," Aureth replied to make up for Balin and Dwalin totally ignoring the hobbit in favor of walking deeper into the hobbit-hole.

Bilbo opened his mouth to say more to the fairy, but his attention was effectively dragged elsewhere when the sound of Balin and Dwalin rummaging in the pantry set warning bells off in his head. His mouth falling open, the hobbit rushed off in the direction the dwarves had gone and with a sigh, Aureth got out of the tiny chair she had been reclining in and followed.

While the two dwarves conversed with each other and looked through the food storage, Bilbo stood just outside, doing a good job of hiding his irritation as he spoke politely. "It's not that I don't like visitors. I-I like visitors just as much as the next hobbit…" he continued even though neither of the people he was talking to was paying attention to him, "but I _do_ like to know them before they come visiting."

Dwalin picked up a lump of cheese and smelled it before making a face. "What's this?" he asked Balin.

"The thing is - um - I-I don't know either of you," Bilbo went on, glancing over at Aureth also, "and I don't know _you_ either, not in the slightest."

The lump of cheese Dwalin was examining flew through the air, past Bilbo, evidently having been tossed out by the dwarf. Aureth instinctively caught it as it almost hit her face.

"I don't mean to be blunt, but I - uh - I had to speak my mind. I'm sorry."

The chatter of the dwarves abruptly went silent as Bilbo finally finished his piece. The brother exchanged glances before Balin smiled brightly, "Apologies accepted!"

Aureth suspected that they probably had no idea what the hobbit had been talking about. Sighing, she casually shoved the cheese block to Bilbo before walking away, leaving the two dwarves to their rifling.

As Balin directed Dwalin to pour some of the ale stored in the pantry, the doorbell rang again, and Bilbo moodily set the cheese down before rushing through the house to get to the door. A small noise that sounded like a moan escaped him when in the doorway he found two more dwarves, younger than the first two.

"Fili," one of them with a light colored braids introduced himself.

"And Kili," finished the other one with darker hair. Together they bowed low at Bilbo, " _At your service_!" The dwarf named Kili beamed brightly at Bilbo despite the hobbit's sour expression, "You must be Mr. Boggins!"

At this point, Bilbo didn't have the energy to act mannerly anymore and immediately started to close the door in their faces as soon as he saw they were dwarves, "No, you can't come in. You've come to the wrong house."

A foot wedged itself into the door crack and stopped him from locking them out. Appearing genuinely upset, Kili easily overpowered Bilbo and pushed the door open to let himself and Fili in, "What? Has it been cancelled?"

"No one told us," Fili added.

Aureth walked past the entry hall and peer over at the newest dwarves, "You two here for the adventure?" When they nodded eagerly, she motioned for them to come in, "This is the place. It's not cancelled. We're just waiting for the others to get here."

"Well, that's a relief," Kili shouldered his way into the house much to Bilbo's horror and both he and Fili started unloading their thick coats and equipment they'd brought on the hobbit.

Fili tossed a bundle of sheathed swords and daggers into Bilbo's arms, "Careful with these; I just had them sharpened."

The look on the hobbit's face made it clear that he had probably never held a weapon in his entire life, much less weapons that were sharpened and ready for use.

After throwing his coat aside, Kili continued into the hobbit-hole, admiring it as he went, "It's nice, this place. Did you do it yourself?"

Bilbo was only able to answer absentmindedly about how he'd inherited it from his family as Fili piled up more knives on him as well as a quiver full of large arrows. His attention, however, was immediately caught by the sound of harsh scraping, and he looked over his shoulder to see Kili using the edge of a chest nearby to clean the mud off his boots, "That's my mother's glory box! Can you _please_ not do that?!"

Kili was done cleaning his shoes anyway, so it was difficult to say whether or not he would have actually stopped scraping purely out of courtesy to Bilbo, but it wasn't as if Aureth was surprised about the manners of dwarves. She just felt a bit of pity for Bilbo who clearly didn't have dealings with them often.

"Ah," Kili smiled up at the fairy who was standing near the glory box, "are you his wife?"

" _Excuse me_?" both Aureth and Bilbo demanded at the same time, shooting dirty looks at the dwarf. "Didn't Gandalf tell you? I'm your scout!" she informed loudly, "And no, I'm not his _wife_."

"Didn't think our scout would be an elf; Thorin won't be happy about this," Fili murmured to Kili.

"I'm not an elf," she cut in quickly, personally offended by the mistake and barely keeping herself from rolling her eyes in a way that would have surely insulted anyone, "I'm a fairy, one of the _Avika_. Do your research."

"I didn't know fairies still existed," Kili breathed as he turned to Fili, appearing fascinated with what she'd told them.

"Of course you don't," Aureth muttered sarcastically, too quietly for either of the two excited dwarves to hear.

At that moment, Dwalin arrived from the dining room and greeted Fili and Kili with jolly slaps on the back, "Fili, Kili, come on, give us a hand!" Steering the newest arrivals to a room deeper in Bilbo's house, Dwalin began instructing on how to move a large table. "Let's shove this in the hallway otherwise we'll never get everyone in."

"E-everyone?" Bilbo squeaked, thinking about how many more guests there could possibly be for them all to not be able to fit. When the doorbell rang once more, the hobbit completely lost his composer and stormed toward the door, shouting as he dumped all the weapons he was carrying onto the floor. "Oh, no, no, no! There's nobody home! Go away and bother someone else. There's far too many dwarves in my living room as it is! If-if-if this is some clot-head's idea of a joke," he let out a laugh that was borderline hysterical, "I can only say it is in _very_ poor taste." He swung the door open and backed up with alarm as several dwarves spilled into his house, all of them having evidently been leaning up again the green wood.

As the dwarves on the floor groaned and blamed one another for crushing each other, a grey wizard, who had been standing behind them, bent down to peer into the hobbit-hole and catch Bilbo's eyes.

"Gandalf," Bilbo recognized, unable to discern himself whether he was relieved to see the wizard, angry about what he instigated, or utterly baffled as to why he instigated it.

* * *

 _A/N: I'm very surprised with the amount of followers this story has already ^^ Thanks, everybody! I hope to give you the next chapter soon~_

 _Next time: The party at Bilbo's house doesn't start until the dwarves start throwing dishes, drinking, and singing, right? And Thorin is kind of the man of the party, so he has to be here for it to really kick off._


	5. The Company

_The Company_

The dwarves invaded Bag End like mice, immediately emptying Bilbo's pantry of all of its contents and leaving a mess behind as they trudged through the hobbit hole. When one of the dwarves started moving the arrangement of Bilbo's sitting room furniture, the hobbit abruptly stopped rambling to Gandalf in order to attempt to stop the trashing of his house.

But as soon as Bilbo hurried away, his spot next to the wizard was instantly taken by Aureth who glared dully at Gandalf, "A pack of dwarves and a hobbit? You're really pushing your luck if you think that'll be enough to take a mountain from a dragon."

Gandalf frowned at Aureth much like a disillusioned parent, "Now, now, don't tell me you want to back out of the quest now?"

"Of course not," the fairy snapped defensively, her eyes following a distraught Bilbo has he scurried through the halls in a panic and realizing that she was, indeed, the tallest member of the company, "I'm just disappointed that it looks like you and I'll be the ones doing most of the work. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's freeloaders."

Gandalf's blue eyes gleamed knowingly, and he smiled as he caught on to the low expectations Aureth had for Bilbo and the dwarves, "You would be wise not to underestimate dwarves, my friend - or hobbits, for that matter. From my experience, they constantly surprise me."

"Yes, well I've been dealing with these races since before you even stepped foot on this Middle Earth, and both dwarves and hobbits have repeatedly disappointed me." Aureth's eyes locked onto Gandalf with dangerousness when she heard him chuckling quietly, "What are you laughing at?"

"The rumors of the pride of fairies aren't wrong, I see." Gandalf quickly raised his hands innocently when Aureth growled and took a threatening step toward him. "Oh please, do not take offense. Let us simply see which of us is right, shall we?"

"Tch," Aureth clicked her tongue and turned her head away as an old grey dwarf hobbled up to Gandalf to offer the wizard a cup of tea surely pillaged from Bilbo's personal stores.

After denying the tea and asking for some wine instead, Gandalf led Aureth through the hobbit hole, both of them needing to press themselves up against the wall to avoid the scurrying dwarves. The wizard began counting the dwarves, pointing them out to Aureth as he named them off, "Fili, Kili, Oin, Gloin, Dwalin, Balin…"

For Aureth, their names flew into one ear and out the other and by the time Gandalf was done, she only remembered Kili and Dwalin, the two who had offended her, and immediately forgot the names of everyone else as soon as Gandalf was finished pointing them out.

A dwarf whose name Aureth had forgotten already approached Gandalf and hastily said something to the wizard in Dwarvish accompanied by a few body movements.

Gandalf nodded with understanding at whatever the dwarf said, and it mildly bothered Aureth that he understood more Dwarvish than she did despite their age difference. "Yes, you're quite right, Bifur," he replied, eyes roaming around the hobbit hole, "We appear to be one dwarf short."

Carrying a barrel of wine past then, Dwalin called over his shoulder, "He is late, is all. He travelled north to a meeting of our kin. He will come."

Aureth's eyes lit up slightly, "If he doesn't show, does that mean we all get one-fourteenths share instead?"

Gandalf patted her on the shoulder, quick not to let her hopes get too high, "He will come. He is our leader after all. This quest cannot start without him."

Shrinking back with a disappointed frown, Aureth stepped aside as the dwarf from before, the grey haired one, came back with a tiny glass of red wine for Gandalf.

The cup was so small that the wizard gulped it all down in one swallow and looked at the empty glass sadly, wanting more.

Most of the dwarves had gathered in the dining room by now, sitting around a table that was piled high with food. It was practically a feast, enough food that wasting it by tossing it around and spilling it wasn't an issue at all.

Pieces of food were thrown back and forth across the room and the dwarves carelessly knocked over plates and cups in their eagerness to fill their stomachs. The dinner was altogether an utter mess, and the racket the dwarves made echoed throughout the entire hobbit hole. Gandalf sat among them, seeming totally at peace, while Aureth and Bilbo watched from the doorway, wearing identical looks of disgust.

Watching the dwarves eat all the food and laugh loudly, the fairy was irritated by their behavior but another vaguer feeling also occupied her heart as a wave of cheers erupted in the room when a round, red haired dwarf managed to catch an egg in his mouth. The fairy swallowed drily, thirsty and hungry, and knew that the only way she was going to get any of the food is if she pushed for it.

A tiny space on the bench next to a dwarf whose name Aureth had also forgotten was empty, and the fairy aggressively planted herself there. When another dwarf somewhere down the line pushed in her direction, she responded with double the power and completely knocked the dwarf on the other end of the bench off which caused the whole chamber to burst into laughter.

"Hmph," Aureth didn't even look in the direction of whoever she knocked off and closed her eyes as she brought a cup of beverage to her lips with surprising poise.

Fili jumped onto the table, carrying cups of ale, and knocked over the food in his way as he merrily passed around the drinks. "Who wants ale? There you go…"

At this point, Aureth knew that there won't be any food left after this dinner is over with, so she reached toward the bread rolls that have been relatively unscathed and quickly hid a few in her lap under the table. She hastily declined the ale Fili tried to give to her and looked to see what other foods she can save from the abuse of the dwarves.

An anger bubbled in her gut slowly the more she saw food get wasted and knocked over like nothing. She'd gone weeks hungry before, eaten the mostly lowly things in order to not starve, and exhausted herself finding food, and the way the dwarves wasted perfectly good food that was clean and cooked didn't sit well with her.

The dwarf to her right had gotten into a food fight with Kili on the other end of the table, and Aureth instantly knew that the bowl of tomatoes nearby was in danger.

She lunged forward, grabbing the red fruits just as the dwarf next to her was about to reach for them for ammunition. Pale grey eyes flashing dangerously, Aureth glared at the dwarf out of narrowed eyes, causing him to freeze and turn white as a sheet. A dark aura practically surrounded the fairy as she drew the tomatoes close to her, shooting suspicious looks at everyone at the table.

Someone had poured ale down one dwarf's hearing trumpet, which was apparently ridiculously amusing, and another roar of laughter erupted around the table as the owner of the hearing trumpet (Oin?) blew the liquid out.

"On the count of three!" someone shouted, banging his ale mug on the table. The other dwarves joined in with their cups of ale and on the count of three, the room grew eerily quiet as they all chugged their drinks messily. Ale dripped down their chins and into their beards and then onto their clothes and the floor.

Aureth sat silently, nibbling her food with a deadpan expression on her face, not even cracking a smile when choruses of burps sounded from each dwarf.

"You get used to them," Gandalf offered as condolence when he saw Aureth's unimpressed look.

After his laughter finally died down, Kili, who seemed to just then notice Aureth's presence at the table, perked up, "Oi, Gandalf, have you told everyone about our scout? A fairy, or all things!"

Cheers erupted around the table once more as everyone suddenly turned their attention to Gandalf and Aureth. Some dwarves congratulated the wizard on managing to find her while others leapt to introduce themselves (which, again, was useless in helping Aureth learn names since they all tried to do it at once) and reached over to give Aureth welcoming slaps on the back, almost making the fairy choke on the bread she was chewing.

"However did you find a fairy, Gandalf?"

"Does that mean she can fly?"

"Here, have some ale!" Fili once again heartily offered her some drink, much to the approval of his friends.

"Thank you, however I abstain from alcohol," Aureth declined the drink as politely as she could and tried not to show her disgust for the beverage too obviously since the dwarves seem to hold it in such high regard.

Disappointed noises replaced the cheering, but thankfully Fili understood and did not force the ale on her anymore.

"Now, our scout's here, but where's our burglar?" Dwalin asked eagerly, leaning over the table to peek through the dining room doorway for Bilbo, but the little hobbit was nowhere to be found.

"Shy little fellow, isn't he?" Ori observed.

"Do you think we may have scared him off?" Kili asked his brother. "I didn't mean to use his mother's glory box as a shoe scraper, I swear!"

"I'll go find him," Aureth got up from the table, having finished all she wanted to eat and eager to escape the fascinated attention of the dwarves. The next thing she knew, they'll be asking her say random words in the Common Tongue just to hear more of her accent.

The loud chatter of the dwarves resumed even after Aureth left, and the sounds eventually became muted as she navigated through the tunnels away from the dining hall. Another roar of laughter from the dwarves reached Aureth's ears and as she listened, wondering what they were doing, she realized the second sensation she felt when she watched them eating was envy.

It was envy not because they'd hogged most of the food, but because they were surrounded by their kin. They were relatives and friends who have decided to help each other out on the quest for the mountain. And they could have dinner together and joke about old times and fool around without a care in the world.

The dwarf populations are plentiful compared to the fairy one and have close relations with one another, so close that a dwarf can travel nearly anywhere in Middle Earth and not be a stranger.

Aureth, on the other hand, has not seen another fairy in centuries. The last one of her kin she had contact with was her brother who is now dead. She doesn't know if she truly is the last member of the _Avika_ but even if she wasn't, there was no doubt in her mind that she will never be able to have a merry gathering with her own kinsmen like that of the dwarves in Bag End.

For a being who is both immortal and the member of a near-extinct species, the loneliness is a taunting, infinite thing that no one could possibly understand.

* * *

Aureth found Bilbo in the bathroom, trying to fix the plumbing which he claimed the dwarves have utterly destroyed, and passed some of the bread rolls she'd saved to him.

The hobbit muttered angrily to himself as he took a break from fixing the toilet to eat the food given to him.

"I know you're annoyed, but could you please not talk about the plumbing while we're eating?" Aureth commented, chewing a bruised and battered apple while sitting against a wall outside the bathroom.

"Oh, sorry," he seemed to quickly realize what he was doing and stopped it, falling silent.

"Nice house you have. I'd like to have one like this myself with a higher ceiling, of course."

"Why, um, thank you." After a night of strangers destroying his home, it was refreshing to hear someone compliment it so genuinely. They sat in comfortable silence before Aureth spoke again.

"… You're very much attached to material things, aren't you?" the fairy asked slowly, staring straight ahead at the opposite wall of the corridor as she spoke.

Surprised that the strange topic she'd chosen to change to, Bilbo's mouth stopped chewing for a moment as he processed, "U-uh, I suppose?"

"Don't be."

Bilbo sputtered, "E-excuse me?"

The fairy was unaffected by the frown the hobbit gave her. "This house, your mother's glory box, your furniture, your plumbing; while all very nice, those are all things that will eventually have to go. You'll waste energy being concerned with them when there are more important things to preserve."

"No, no, you don't understand," Bilbo hastily leaps to defend his treasures, "these things have all been passed down in my family for generations, even the plumbing was done by my great-gr - "

" _I_ understand," Aureth interrupted her voice louder than before. "I used to have those types of things too. When I realized how little they were actually worth, I let them go, and it saved me from a lot of burden."

Still not totally convinced, Bilbo pressed his lips into a straight line and sighed through his nose. "All right, well, thanks for the advice, but I should get back to the bathroom now. Thanks for the bread. Please tell Gandalf not to let the dwarves trash my house any further?"

"Okay," she answered absentmindedly, though she was sure neither she nor the wizard would actually be able to do much about the nature of the dwarves who were already starting to trickle out of the dining room after finishing their meals.

Hearing the stirring of the dwarves too, Bilbo's priorities quickly changed, and he rushed out of the bathroom to stop them from doing more damage like break the plates while washing them or something. He snatched a doily from Nori who was using it to wipe food from his face, "That's a doily, not a dishcloth, thank you!"

"But it's full of holes," Bofur pointed out, which launched Bilbo into a sarcastic explanation about how it's supposed to have holes because it's crochet.

After seeing the state of the kitchen and dining room, which was even worse than before, Bilbo couldn't stop himself from making a loud noise of frustration, catching the concerned attention of Gandalf.

"My dear Bilbo, what on earth is the matter?" the wizard asked with honest worry, though it didn't help to calm Bilbo down much.

While the hobbit ranted to Gandalf animatedly about having no clue what they were all doing in his house, the dwarves started doing something that belonged in Bilbo's nightmares: throwing the dishware.

Abandoning his rant as quickly as he had started it, the poor hobbit hurried into the dining room, frantically trying to keep track of what each dwarf was doing with his kitchenware, "E-excuse me! That's my mother's West Farthing crockery. It's over a hundred years old!"

"He sure keeps a lot of his mother's things in this house," observed Ori and Aureth nodded in agreement.

Bilbo's protests did little to discourage the dwarves from what they were doing, and they soon started beating utensils on the table to create a rhythm and sang a song totally dedicated to all the things they've done to offend Bilbo.

The hobbit was not amused in the slightest, but his face fell with surprise when he pushed his way through the pack of dwarves toward the dining table to find that his bowls and dishes have all been cleaned and neatly stacked.

Aureth subtly raised an eyebrow at the clean bowls too, and the dwarves and Gandalf laughed at the astonished expression gracing Bilbo's countenance.

Suddenly, three loud knocks sounded from the entrance hall, miraculously causing everyone to fall silent. The members of the party glanced at one another with excitement glittering in their eyes, and Gandalf took his pipe from his mouth before smiling, "He is here."

The dwarves all scrambled to crowd around the door as Gandalf twisted the knob and opened it to reveal one more dark haired dwarf wearing a cloak over a coat of fur and looking unimpressed as he stepped into the hobbit hole.

"Gandalf," he greeted the wizard as his kinsmen eagerly surrounded him, "I thought you said this place would be easy to find. I lost my way, twice. Wouldn't have found it at all had it not been for that mark on the door."

"Same," Aureth muttered, but no one heard her over Bilbo's objections about how there could possibly be a "mark" on his door when he literally had the whole green thing painted a week ago.

Gandalf, on the other hand, wore a pleased expression and closed the door, preventing Bilbo from examining it. "There _is_ a mark; I put it there myself. Bilbo Baggins," he gently tugged the little hobbit before the dwarf who had just arrived, "allow me to introduce the leader of our company, Thorin Oakenshield."

Thorin's gaze landed on Bilbo, and the gleam in his irises was a look Aureth recognized: amusement. He smiled as he looked down at Bilbo, "So, this is the hobbit."

Bilbo stared back up at him, defiance written all over his face as he eyed Thorin up and down. Clearly the events of the night had made him tougher, and he already wasn't the same person who had opened the door for Aureth when she first arrived.

"Tell me, Mr. Baggins," Thorin continued, beginning to slowly circle around Bilbo, taking note of the hobbit's build, clothing, and size, "have you done much fighting?"

"Pardon me?"

"Axe or sword? What's your weapon of choice?"

Though obviously confused at the series of questions, Bilbo didn't allow himself to get walked over like before and answered calmly without the slightest stutter, "Well, I have some skills at conkers, if you must know, but I fail to see why that's relevant."

"Thought as much," Thorin confirmed, turning to the other dwarves, "He looks more like a grocer than a burglar."

Relatively quiet chuckles rang around the room but at this point, Aureth had already accepted that she didn't understand any of the jokes of the dwarves and probably should stop trying.

At last, Thorin's attention turned to her standing at the back of the crowd of dwarves, "Ah, and this must be… "

The dwarves gave a cheer and started shoving the fairy forward to meet their leader, and Gandalf gave Aureth a little push to keep her from instinctively backing up once she stood before Thorin. "Our much needed scout for the journey; I found her myself," the wizard explained with a subtle hint of pride. "This is Aureth, daughter from the ancient race of _Avika_."

Aureth wished Gandalf would stop adding unnecessary titles to the end of her name.

"A _fairy_ , if I'm not mistaken," Thorin mused with a thoughtful smile as he sauntered around her, sizing her up the way he did to Bilbo; Aureth tried her best not to obviously look down at him as he did so. "She's quite thin. I reckon even Ori would be able to carry her easily."

Again, the dwarves laughed about something Aureth couldn't keep up with and playfully smacked Ori, the shrimpiest dwarf present, on the back. The fairy's jaw clenched, thinking he was making fun of her.

" _But_ ," the leader went on, his tone more serious now as he met her eyes, "I know a fighter when I see one. You are used to hardship, which is what you will face with us."

 _Oh_. The swiftness with which the anger flushed out of her at his words surprised the fairy. She hadn't realized how much she craved recognition for the hell she'd been through the past many years until now. But here was someone who could tell just by looking at her which could only mean Thorin himself has suffered beyond measure in his lifetime as well. Aureth would not think for a second that what has happened in his short life would be anything compared to hers, but she saw someone she could respect in his dark eyes.

Fili passed some weapons to Thorin; a few daggers, a bow, a sword. "What's your weapon of choice? Take your pick," Thorin offered.

The weapons were all finely crafted, no doubt by dwarves themselves which are said to be the best arms in the land, but Aureth had little training with knives or bows, and the weapons would surely only weigh her down.

"None," she answered, "my wing will serve me just fine, thank you."

Thorin exchanged glances with the wizard before looking back to Aureth. "Gandalf mentioned you can't fly. Just for precaution, here," he handed her a small pointy dagger.

Sensing his doubt in her ability to properly defend herself, Aureth's eyes hardened, and she glances over at Bilbo out the corner of her eyes and pointed toward the front door, "Mr. Baggins, please stand over there."

Bilbo's eyes widened as he clearly wasn't expecting the request, but he complied without much resistance, muttering to himself as he walked toward the door, "Oh, ah, fine. Considering you're the only person in this house who's shown me even a shred of respect, I - "

All within a second, Aureth's wing erupted from her back in a column of crimson flame, evoking cries of surprise from the dwarves that were standing nearby, and flicked in Bilbo's direction.

The next thing the hobbit knew, a shard of red crystal the size of his forearm impaled itself into the green wood of his door, barely missing his face. Before he could so much as yelp with alarm, Aureth's wing flicked again and several more shards of varying sizes, seeming to have been flung randomly, embedded themselves into the door. Although still vibrating from the impact, all of the shards missed him by centimeters, leaving the little hobbit wide eyed and shaking but physically unharmed.

A ripple of astonishment and curious exclamations spread through the group of dwarves while Bilbo stood frozen mid-step, utterly scandalized.

"Is it fire?" Fili breathed, amazed as watching her wing glowed.

"No, it's not."

"Will it hurt me if I touch it?" Kili asked excitedly, fingers already reaching forward.

"Don't touch it," she snapped monotonously.

His smile instantly faded when Aureth's narrowed eyes flashed at him and, Kili stared back, more than a little disillusioned before quickly withdrawing his hand back.

After giving Fili and Kili a brief look of disapproval, Balin chuckled nervously, hoping to correct the tense atmosphere before stepping forward to Aureth, beaming brightly, "Ah, well, since it seems our leader approves of you, I'll just give you this contract to sign…" He produced a neatly folded packet of parchment from his coat and put it in her hand.

Raising an eyebrow, Aureth took the contract without a word and turned away to start unfolding and reading it.

While she did so, Balin scooted closer to Thorin and whispered so that the fairy wouldn't hear their conversation, "Are you sure about this, lad? Though a fairy, the lass is still a _lady_. Having her travel with a band of thirteen dwarves - "

"Balin," Thorin spoke softly and honestly, placing a comforting hand on the elder dwarf's shoulder, "fairies are all but extinct. To have survived to be one of the last of her race, she _must_ have something in her."

Both dwarves once again returned their gaze to the fairy only to find that she was staring cluelessly at the contract, muttering to herself with her brows drawn together in frustration. It took less than a moment for Balin and Thorin to realize, their faces falling, that Aureth had no idea how to read the writing on the parchment.

As Thorin raised a questioning eyebrow at him, Gandalf cleared his throat awkwardly before nudging the still frozen hobbit, "Bilbo, my dear fellow, would you mind reading the contract for Aureth?" He nodded in the fairy's direction.

Bilbo's eyes widened with alarm at the prospect going near the fairy.

Noticing this, Aureth immediately retracted her wing, and it fizzled out as if water was thrown on it. She reluctantly handed the contract over to Bilbo and crossed her arms as she listened to him read it out loud for her.

Meanwhile, the dwarves all gathered back into the dining room, and someone provided Thorin with a plate of food. As the leader ate, the other dwarves excitedly bombarded him with questions about his meeting with the rest of their kin.

"'Present company shall not be liable for injuries inflicted…'" Bilbo read quietly, a frown on his face as he trailed off before giving Aureth a disbelieving look. "You can't _read_?"

"I can read my own language," Aureth barked defensively, her accent becoming more prominent as her irritation flared.

"And you've lived for _how_ _long_?"

"That's irrelevant," she answered quickly, almost interrupting him. "Just finish reading the contract."

"… 'Present company shall not be liable for injuries inflicted by or sustained as a consequence therof including but not limited to lacerations… evisceration… and incineration?'" the hobbit's jaw dropped as he read the last few words while Aureth kept a straight face.

"Done?" the fairy asked in a bored tone.

Bilbo only nodded absently as he tried to process what was going on with the contract.

"All right then," Aureth snatched the paper from him and marched into the dining room, requesting a writing utensil.

As Balin dug up some ink and a quill from the dwarves' supplies, Gandalf smiled and politely asked Bilbo to bring some more candles into the room so they'd have more light.

Once Bilbo came back with the candles, the wizard produces an old folded parchment from his pocket and spread it out of the table. As all the dwarves leaned forward to take a look, the light of the candles revealed that it was an ancient map. "Far to the East, over the ranges and rivers," Gandalf began, "beyond woodlands and wastelands, lies a single solitary peak."

Bilbo craned his neck to see over the dwarves. "'The Lonely Mountain'," he read as the name of the peak on the map.

"Aye," Gloin nodded, "Oin has read the portents, and the portents say it is time!"

"Ravens have been seen flying back to the mountain as it was foretold," Oin supplied eagerly, "When the birds of yore return to Erebor, the reign of the beast will end."

Bilbo looked up from the map with concern upon hearing that, "Uh, what beast?"

"Hmm," Aureth hummed half-heartedly, not even taking her eyes off of her task of signing the contract as she spoke, "You really do live under a rock, Mr. Baggins."

The hobbit made a face, offended, but before he could respond, Bofur cut in with a tone that was quite casual considering the topic of conversation.

"Well that would be Smaug the Terrible, chiefest and greatest calamity of our age. Airborne fire-breather, teeth like razors," he listed as if he was only talking about a shopping list, "claws like meat hooks, extremely fond of precious metals - "

"Yes, I know what a dragon is," Bilbo deadpanned, but no one paid much attention to him.

"I'm not afraid!" Ori suddenly announced, shooting to his feet with his chest puffed out proudly, "I'm up for it. I'll give him a taste of the Dwarvish iron right up his jacksie!"

Several dwarves gave shouts of agreement, but Balin quickly dowsed their enthusiasm with reality, "The task will be difficult enough with an army behind us. But we number just thirteen! … And not thirteen of the best nor brightest…"

Objections instantly erupted around the room as many of the company took offense to Balin's observation about their wits.

Aureth finished signing her name in Avikan characters and sighed loudly, "You will all be _fine_."

"Well how do _you_ know?" Dori asked accusingly.

Keeping a straight face, the fairy looked him directly in the eyes and answered with all honesty, "You have me."

Half the dwarves sunk with disappointment, not reassured at all with Aureth's statement, while the other half cheered loudly, totally inspired by the her genuine confidence.

Fili, one of those who was more optimistic, spoke up loudly, "We may be few in number, but we're fighters, all of us, to the last dwarf!"

"And you forget we have a wizard in our company," Kili added enthusiastically, wearing a bright smile. "Gandalf will have killed _hundreds_ of dragons in his time."

Judging by the way Gandalf's face fell, Aureth could already tell that that was totally untrue.

"Oh, well, now, I - I wouldn't say that, I - " the wizard tried to deny it, but no one heard him over the excitement Kili's declaration has created in the room.

"How many, then?" Dori asked.

"Uh, what?" Gandalf replied cluelessly.

"Well, how many dragons have you killed? Go on, give us a number!"

"Hmm…" Hesitating, Gandalf embarrassedly starts cough on his pipe smoke.

The dwarves jump out of their seats, and arguments echoed around the chamber as to how many dragons the wizard has killed.

Aureth hardly paid attention to the eruptions of arguments anymore. At this point, it seemed like the norm for the dwarves.

Only when Thorin stands in anger and shouts a Dwarvish command which Aureth didn't understand did the dwarves quickly silence and sit back down.

The fairy's eyes widened a little at how effective of a leader the dark haired dwarf was. And she was surprised yet again when Thorin made a short but inspiring speech without being interrupted even once. Aureth wondered what he had done so that the group of rowdy and ill-mannered dwarves would respect him this way.

"You forget," Balin at last objected and quieted the cheering Thorin had evoked, "the front gate is sealed. There is no way into the mountain."

"That, my dear Balin, is not entirely true." Gandalf's eyes glittered with knowingness, and he appeared to have gotten over the embarrassment about the lack of dragons he's killed.

Thorin watches in wonder as Gandalf took a Dwarvish key, ornately wrought and slightly tarnished with age, from his robes. "… How came you by this?"

"It was given to me by your father, by Thrain, for safekeeping," the wizard replied, smiling at the satisfactory reaction he got. "It is yours now."

"If there's a key, there must be a door," Fili said as Thorin took the key from Gandalf.

The wizard used the end of his pipe to point at the ancient writing on the map, "These runes speak of a hidden passage to the lower halls."

"There's another way in!" concluded Kili.

"Well, if we can find it," Gandalf tilted his head to one side as he studied the map, "but the dwarf doors are invisible when closed. The answer lies hidden somewhere in this map, and I do not have the skill to find it, but there are others in Middle Earth who can."

The members of the company leaned in closer with anticipation for Gandalf's genius plan.

"The task I have in mind will require a great deal of stealth, and no small amount of courage, but if we are careful and clever, I believe it can be done," the wizard said.

"That's why we need a burglar," Ori spoke with realization.

Bilbo stood nonchalantly near the entrance to the dining room, "Hmm, a good one too. An expert I'd imagine."

"… And are you?" Gloin asked.

"Am I what?" was Bilbo's slightly perplexed response, his voice soft and squeaky.

The hobbit's incoherent answer was quickly misinterpreted by the dwarves. "He said he's an expert!" Oin announced loudly to the cheering dwarves.

"M-me?" Bilbo choked out in alarm. "No, no, no, no, no, I'm not a burglar; I've never stolen a thing in my life!"

"I'm afraid I have to agree with Mr. Baggins," Balin sighed, lowering his head, "He's hardly burglar material."

"Aye, the wild is no place for gentlefolk who can neither fight nor fend for themselves," Dwalin concurred and Bilbo eagerly nodded with agreement.

The dwarves began arguing again, some jumping to the defense of Bilbo's burglar abilities and others suggesting giving up on him. Growing angry, Gandalf rises from his seat suddenly, and his voice as he spoke echoed loudly and ominously. A darkness was cast over the room, shocking the dwarves into silence.

"Enough! If I say Bilbo Baggins is a burglar, then _a burglar he is_." Seeming to instantly realize his outburst, the wizard quickly lowered his voice, and the darkness receded. "Hobbits are remarkably light on their feet. In fact, they can pass unseen by most if they choose. And while the dragon is accustomed to the smell of dwarf, the scent of hobbit is all but unknown to him, which gives us a _distinct_ advantage."

The dwarves exchanged undecided glances while Aureth watched Bilbo out of the corner of her eyes, certain that hewould refuse the offer anyway even if he was allowed admittance into the quest.

Gandalf continued, putting an arm around Bilbo's shoulders and pulling him closer to the table, "You ask me to find the fifteenth member of this company, and I have chosen Mr. Baggins. There's a lot more him than appearances suggest, and he's got a great deal more to offer than any of you know, including himself." He caught Thorin's reluctant gaze and gave him a meaningful look, "You must _trust_ me on this."

Thorin stared back, contemplatively, before taking in a deep breath and saying after a pause, "Very well, we will do it your way."

"No, no, no," the hobbit objected but was ignored.

"Give him the contract," Thorin told Balin.

The old white haired dwarf exhaled loudly before obeying and handing Bilbo a packet of parchment like the one Aureth got. "It's just the usual summery of out-of-pocket expenses, time requirement, et cetera."

His brows drawn together, Bilbo stepped away from the dining room to read the contract, realizing quickly that it was identical to the one Aureth had to sign but this time, the words "funeral arrangements," "incarceration," and "incineration" hit him like a ton of bricks. "' _Incineration_?'"

"He'll melt the flesh off your bones in the blink of an eye," Bofur supplied helpfully.

"You all right, laddie?" Balin called from the dining room.

"Uh, yeah… feel a bit faint," the hobbit bent over in a panic, leaning against a wall as nausea took him. "Air, I - I - need air."

"Flash of light, searing pain, then poof! You're nothing more than a pile of ash!" Bofur went on, totally lacking self-awareness.

Breathing heavily, Bilbo turns away to compose himself but only managed to draw in a couple of exhaled before falling over onto the floor, fainting.

* * *

Aureth stopped Gandalf as the wizard was about to enter the dimly lit sitting room where Bilbo, who had just recently returned to the realm of consciousness, sat with a cup of tea. "Don't you dare make him do this," she said quietly but forcefully, blocking the way to the hobbit. "He clearly doesn't want to go, so don't make him."

The wizard frowned at her, trying to figure out what she was getting at, "Why this so suddenly? I'm sure even you can see Mr. Baggins' value as a burglar on this quest."

"It doesn't _matter_ how good of burglar he is," the fairy growled. "If he doesn't want to leave home, you have no right to harass him, force him, or guilt trip him into it. If I must, I'll serve as a burglar too. I doubt a dragon would recognize fairy scent either."

Taking a step back with his hands raised in innocence, Gandalf pressed his lips together into a hard line, coming to a conclusion, "If this is about getting a bigger share of the reward - "

"Partly, yes," Aureth answered quickly, not even bothering to deny it, "but more importantly, Mr. Baggins does not wish to leave home. Know that tearing him away from that comfort is the largest insult to me."

Genuinely intrigued, Gandalf watched as Aureth, appearing to be satisfied with him taking a few steps back, turned to leave, "What makes you care so much about the comforts of a hobbit?"

The fairy stopped, her back still turned toward the wizard, and let out a sigh as if the answer should be obvious. Not facing him so that he wouldn't see her eyes roaming around the cozy halls and furniture of the hobbit hole, she answered quietly, "If I had a home like this, I wouldn't want to leave it either."

* * *

 _A/N: Thanks for reading, my lovelies~_

 _Next time: And finally the journey starts! We learn a couple of things about Thorin, and the trolls are waiting!_


	6. Thorin

_Thorin_

Early the next morning, Aureth, awoken up by the dwarves making a commotion, was met with a nasty backache from sleeping in a chair that was far too small for her. Wincing as she slid out of the seat, she shifted her sleepy, lidded eyes to her right to find pale yellow light streaming into the hobbit hole through a nearby window.

Most of the noise seemed to be coming from outside on Bilbo's front lawn, and the whinnying of ponies accompanied the shouts of the dwarves.

Aureth pulled herself to her feet and quickly scrambled for the exit, thinking that they were going to leave her behind, but before she could reach the door, which was still embedded with her red crystals from the night before, she found Balin in the entranceway, laying down Bilbo's contract in a chair.

The old dwarf smiled brightly when he saw her, "Why, good morning, lassie!"

"What are you doing with that?" Aureth asked, indicating the contract which still had not been signed by the hobbit by the looks of the empty space next to the title "Burglar."

"Ah, this," Balin nodded, gazing down at it as his smile turned rueful, "Gandalf insists that we leave it here for Mr. Baggins, just in case, you know … Just in case he changes his mind."

"If he doesn't come, I can do it," Aureth started, "the burglar mission, I mean. Any dragon that is familiar with the scent of fairy would be long dead by now."

Though he was white and old, Balin's eyes were the most animated and warm with life out of all the dwarves as he smiled again up at Aureth, "We appreciate your willingness, lass. But since I believe it might come to that, please don't make promises so recklessly. You do not know the ruin of dragon's fire."

"No," Aureth admitted to his last comment. Dragons came from the north, a wasteland far from where the fairies made their home in the mountains far to the southwest of the Shire. Very few fairies will have traveled that far in that direction. "But the dragon would not know the devastation wreaked by fairy wings either for the creator of the land himself gifted my kind with these wings. In other words…" she tried not to sound too dismissive of Balin's uneasiness because she _did_ value his genuine concern for her safety, "please do not worry about me."

Morning light fell onto them as the door creaked open, and Gandalf peeked into the hobbit hole from outside. "We are right on time it would seem," he declared with satisfaction, stepping into the house with a bundle of clothes in his arms, "Bifur and Bofur went out early this morning to the nearest town and bought these for you."

Aureth examined the clothes suspiciously after they were dumped in her arms. One look and she knew the outfit, in the latest human fashion and clearly made for a man, wouldn't fit her completely. However, the nervous but eager smiles on Bifur and Bofur's faces as they fidgeted when Aureth glanced in their direction cancelled all of the fairy's initial plans to decline the new clothes. "Um… thank you."

Apparently, she hid her hesitation well because big grins appeared on the two dwarves' faces and they stumbled over themselves with "you're welcome"s and "our pleasure"s.

When the fairy returned from changing, she politely declined the cloak and the horse that was offered to her, assuring the dwarves that she could keep up on foot.

With one last glance at the quiet hobbit hole bathed in the morning light, led by Gandalf on his horse and Thorin on a pony, the company rode single file down the dirt path leading from Bag End. The dwarves laughed merrily and joked as they rode, not appearing at all as if they were embarking on a journey they may never return from.

Several farmer hobbits worked the fields surrounding the road, and all of them paused in their labor to gape at the company as it passed, but the dwarves seemed not to notice the stares and only guffawed loudly at some joke Gloin told.

"Do you think he'll come?" Fili asked, turning back to smile at his friends. "Mr. Baggins, I mean."

"No, surely not!" someone far ahead at the front of the line asserted, laughing at the thought.

"I bet he will," Ori disagreed.

"Ten silver pieces?" Oin offered, shaking a small sack of coins at Ori mischievously.

The dwarves, evidently thinking that betting on the topic is a source of great fun, eagerly pitched in their pocket money.

Aureth tried not to pay them any attention as she sped up her walking, keeping up on foot despite the initial doubts of her companions, and steadily making her way toward the front of the line where the seemingly more sensible people such as Balin, Gandalf, and Thorin were. She pretended not to hear the others and hoped that they'd leave her out of their games.

"And you?" Fili called to her the minute those thoughts crossed her mind. He held up his own baggie of coins, clearly inviting her to join them.

Aureth miraculously managed to keep her face passive as she responded shortly, "I don't gamble."

That wasn't exactly the truth, but it was what Aureth came up with on the spot to avoid betting on such a topic. Although it was unlikely Bilbo will ever know about the bet, Aureth still found it highly disrespectful to the hobbit and would not stoop so low as to make fun out of someone's distress.

"Ah come on! Have a bit of fun with us!" Kili insisted, nudging Aureth a little as he rode past her but she turned her head the other way stubbornly.

"It looks like our pixie scout is afraid of losing a few coins," Gloin laughed several pony's behind Fili.

Aureth bristled so noticeably that the dwarves around her suddenly went hush, eyes widening at her reaction.

 _Would she really…?_ Fili anticipated, dumbfounded.

 _Fall for a cheap taunt like that?_ Kili was thinking the exact same thing.

" _Hah_?" Aureth slowly looked over her shoulder at Gloin, fixing him with a glare so threatening that one would have thought the dwarf had just stolen her child's candy.

 _It worked!_ The same ridiculous thought ran through all of the dwarves' heads as the fairy looked to Kili, her sudden attention on him making the young one startle for a moment in his saddle.

"I don't have any money on me," she stated drily.

Taking that as confirmation that Aureth is willing to bet now, the dwarves erupted in cheers, some clapping a speechless Gloin on the back for his service.

"I'll lend you some," Kili offered, the smile returning to his face after his initial shock over the fact that Gloin's petty comment actually worked on the—evidently—equally petty Aureth. "You can pay me back later if you lose."

"I don't _lose_ bets," was Aureth's provocative reply, "at least not to beginners like all of you."

Laughter and low noises of anticipation and excitement surrounded her as the dwarves clearly liked the heightened tension. Kili tossed her a bag with several coins inside and the dwarves cheered as she began to prepare her wager.

Meanwhile, Thorin looked over his shoulder briefly to gauge the rowdiness that had mysteriously overtaken the company behind him. "What's going on back there?"

"It appears that Aureth has decided to humor them," Gandalf chuckled, eyes twinkling with amusement as he kept his gaze ahead. "I admit I'm surprised. She doesn't seem the type to get on especially well with dwarves."

"Her appearance truly does resemble that of an elf," Thorin observed thoughtfully, his brows furrowing, "except the hair, of course. If I hadn't seen her wings last night, I wouldn't have been able to believe you'd managed to hire a fairy, Gandalf."

"Well, our encounter was purely coincidental, you see," the wizard replied modestly. "The fact that she is missing a wing is unfortunate, but—"

"It's fine."

"Ah—what was that?"

Thorin met Gandalf's gaze and then looked past him at the other dwarves, chatting and laughing as they road in line, "I said it's fine. All of us have lost something equally important; the fairy's loss is just more evident. I admit if she did not have _some_ battle scars, I would have considered her too delicate for this journey."

"Hmm…" Gandalf furrowed his brows and made a thoughtful noise as he lit his pipe, "perhaps you're right. It is said that the Avika have an uncanny ability to recover from illness and injuries, an ability even elves would envy. I would not doubt that the majority of the evidence of her capability has long healed."

"That is enough," Thorin indicated the company behind them, his eyes softer as he watched over their mischief. "They may not be very observant, but they can sense when someone belongs with them."

Gandalf watched as the dwarves cheered Aureth on while she made her bet, gambling the entire sack of coins Kili had given her.

"By the way, Gandalf," Thorin, who had turned his gaze forward again, began nonchalantly, "how _did_ you convince the fairy to join us? She seems quite aloof; was it difficult to recruit her?"

"Ah—well, that's—" the wizard hesitated, biting his tongue before he could reveal that Aureth's real and only motivation at the moment was the one-fifteenths share—now one-fourteenths minus Bilbo—of the Erebor treasure horde. Something told him it was too early to tell Thorin that. "To be quite honest, it _was_ a bit difficult, but I handled it very delicately, you see. I _am_ fairly good at dealing with such matters of diplomacy…"

Thorin stared at Gandalf thoughtfully as the wizard chuckled a little too innocently before shaking his head and deciding not to press further as the wizard acting strangely, from Thorin's experiences, was nothing particularly special.

* * *

Aureth gazed at the scenery around her absentmindedly as the voices of the dwarves faded to a soft hum following the settling of their wagers. All that they had to do was wait for the results which was far less exciting. The fairy's confidence in her gambling ability had not come out of thin air as many of the dwarves thought, but Aureth really couldn't be bothered explaining her gambling history even when Nori had asked as an attempt at starting a conversation with her.

The Avika once loved to gamble, especially on completely unpredictable topics—such as what the wings of a newborn fairy will manifest as and who the Queen's next favorite will be—where one's fate is totally out of one's hands. It was a convenient pastime that provided a thrill fairies craved while allowing the participants to control the risk.

Thinking back to the time when she would occasionally feel daring enough to bet her own life on something out of her control, Aureth was suddenly hit by a wave of shame at how timid she had become in comparison, and she couldn't tell if it was just her age or an instinct she had developed for the sake of survival.

Her gaze danced from one part of her surroundings to another in an attempt to find a distraction from the unpleasant thoughts and landed on Thorin's back which was getting closer and closer to her as she advanced forward in the line the company had formed along the road.

Despite the fact that even on a pony he hardly surpassed Aureth's height, Thorin had the type of back that was unmistakably reassuring, broad, solid-looking and heavy with the thick coats of fur he wore. It was the sort of back Aureth had seen countless times in her lifetime and that almost always marked a man as one destined either for greatness or for tragedy and nothing in between for _that_ kind of back was made to shield others. And for others to follow.

Gandalf may be the most powerful of all of them, but one look at the way the rest of the company looked at Thorin with such admiration, such devotion and trust, and it was clear who really had authority over the majority of their party and, by extension, who Aureth is expected to obey.

Although Aureth didn't very much enjoy following, at least not if she wasn't being led by the one who had given her the name Aureth, she found solace in the knowledge that at least Thorin had some qualifications, particularly that hero-like back among other things. That was a start.

* * *

At the edge of Hobbiton, the sound of frantic breathing and hurried footsteps reached Aureth and soon the rest of the company's ears and seconds later, Bilbo Baggins popped out from over a hill they had just passed, large pack bouncing on his back and hair askew as if he'd just woken up.

"Wait…! Wait!" the hobbit scrambled all the way to the front of the party where Balin rode behind Gandalf and Thorin, the contract that had been left for him fluttering in his hand as he ran.

A mortified Aureth did a double take when he ran past her and instinctively halted in her steps along with the rest of the company.

"I signed it!" Bilbo announced with surprising confidence as he held up his contract for all to see before handing it to Balin.

The astonishment in the white-haired dwarf's eyes quickly disappeared as a bright beam spread across his face. He purposefully took out a pocket-glass with which he used to inspect Bilbo's signature before nodding in approval and folding up the contract to be stowed away. "Everything appears to be in order. Welcome, Master Baggins, to the company of Thorin Oakenshield."

Bilbo looked genuinely happy as he glanced around at his new travel mates, and Balin's words seemed to snap the rest of the dwarves out of their stunned silence before they let out a warm cheer.

And that was that. No questions asked.

When Bilbo looked in her direction, Aureth couldn't control her facial expression and ended up glaring at him so fiercely that the hobbit actually squeaked and quickly broke eye contact. Without even sparing a glance in the blonde dwarf's direction, she threw her little sack of silver coins at Fili whom she had bet against, the pouch hitting him square in the face, and kept walking.

Thorin, who had been silent since Bilbo arrived, turned his mount to continue forward, looking unimpressed as he ordered no one in particular, "Give him a pony."

"No, no, no, that won't be necessary, thank you. I—"

Judging by the scandalized sounds the hobbit made afterwards, Aureth could tell that he had been ignored even without having to look back to see what Bilbo Baggins looked like riding a pony.

* * *

Before the company could even cross the Brandywine River, Bilbo was already experiencing difficulties such as allergies to his pony's hair, the morbid realization that he had forgotten to pack his pocket hanky, and the total lack of sympathy the dwarves showed to his struggles among other things.

At the end of the second day on the road, they'd reached Bree and the hobbit was thoroughly relieved to see the light of civilization after hours in the forest—that is, until Thorin announced that they were to keep moving, only stopping in the town for moments to restock some supplies. No warm shelter, no home-cooked dinner, not even a single night of rest in a real bed, and the company leaves Bree behind.

There were times during the first week when Aureth wondered if Mr. Baggins will be all right. Beyond Bree was a long stretch of wilderness and as the party's official scout, Aureth was often at the front of the company or even sent ahead though she couldn't shake the feeling that maybe she ought to say something to the hobbit: scold him for his stupid decision, give him some advice, encourage him? Her position, however, allowed little time to mingle amongst the company during the day and several days passed without the fairy saying a word to Bilbo.

At the end of their first week on the road, it seemed Bilbo was still quite uncomfortable, an outsider in a group of fourteen others who were hardly affected by the harsh conditions so far, and the closest thing to a friendship he'd built was with his pony, Myrtle.

On a chilly night in early May, the company stopped for the night under the shelter of a curious rock formation and built a measly fire with the twigs Fili, Kili, and several of the younger dwarves found.

Aureth rarely slept even if she didn't have a watch—she wasn't quite ready to allow herself to be in such a vulnerable state around the dwarves—and this habit proved to be helpful because if Aureth had been asleep on this particular night, she would have missed something she never would have had the chance to hear again.

Kili and Fili were on watch, but Balin—possibly not trusting the young ones to handle the task seriously—also remained awake along with Gandalf, Aureth, and Bilbo

Far in the distance, an ominous scream echoed off the hills and cliffs surrounded the area, and shuffling could be heard as Bilbo scrambled as gracefully as he could further into to their naturally formed shelter.

"What was that?" the hobbit's soft, alarmed voice asked no one in particular.

"Orcs," Kili supplied in a portentous tone as another scream sounded.

"Orcs?" Bilbo echoed, his breath coming out with the word slightly too frantically to hide his mounting dread.

"Throat-cutters," Fili said even though the clarification really wasn't necessary given that either way Bilbo was scared to death. "There'll be dozens of them out there. The lowlands are crawling with them."

Aureth frowned slightly, but didn't say anything as she kept listening. If she had to guess, she would have told Bilbo that it was just a large bird.

"They strike in the wee small hours when everyone's asleep," Kili continued, "quick and quiet; no screams, just lots of blood."

Eyes wide and face pale, Bilbo gulped.

The dwarf brothers exchanged serious glances, but the corners of their lips twitched a little before long and they gave up suppressing their giggles, snickering quietly though Aureth wasn't sure what exactly they were laughing at.

"… You think that's funny?" Thorin, who had woken up at some point without any of them noticing, glared at the younger dwarves, his voice dark and laced with restraint. "You think a night raid by orcs is a joke?"

Fili and Kili instantly quieted down, the smiles falling off their faces so quickly that Aureth almost felt bad for them. As Thorin stood up to tower over their seated forms, the brothers seemed to shrink in shame, keeping their gazes down. "We didn't mean anything by it," Kili muttered, his eyes glued to the fire in front of him.

"No you didn't," Thorin scoffed as he turned away and, as if needing to get out of Fili and Kili's bubble of idiocy, walked out to the edge of a cliff nearby where he could see a wide view of the valleys below. "You know _nothing_ of the world."

Aureth watched his figure, just a silhouette as he stood against the moonlight. From what she had seen, Thorin was always gentle to Fili and Kili who, the fairy learned some time during her first three days with them, were his nephews. The bitterness with which he addressed them just then was uncharacteristic as far as she could tell but not completely unrelatable to the fairy. Aureth knew all too well the frustration of associating with those too young and naïve to even imagine what oneself has seen and experienced. Although she did not know how old Thorin was, it seemed to her that the age between him and his nephews was infinite.

"Don't mind him, laddie," Balin said, moving to stand a little closer to the gloomy Fili and Kili. "Thorin has more cause than most to hate orcs."

Knowing Balin, Aureth expected that he would try to console the younger dwarves after their scolding but what she didn't expect was for him to openly tell half of Thorin's life story right then and there for not only Kili and Fili but for her and Bilbo to hear.

"After the dragon took the Lonely Mountain, King Thror tried to reclaim the ancient dwarf kingdom of Moria, but our enemy had got there first. Moria had been taken by legions of Orcs led by the most vile of all their race: Azog the Defiler.

"The giant Gundabad Orc had sworn to wipe out the line of Durin," Balin's voice wavered and he hesitated, squeezing his eyes shut as if recalling a morbid image. "He began by beheading the king."

"Should you really be telling us this?" Aureth interrupted, perhaps coming off as more aggressive than she intended because Balin flinched ever so slightly. Biting her lip to reign in the unintentional force with which she spoke, Aureth quickly started over in a softer voice. "I just… I would consider feelings like grudges to be quite private." Subconsciously, her eyes drifted past the others to look at Thorin.

The dark haired dwarf hadn't moved from his spot at the ledge, but he had turned his head over his shoulder since Aureth's interruption, his blue gaze made paler than usual by the white light shining on him fixed on her with an unreadable look.

When he didn't say anything in protest to Balin taking the initiative even when Aureth interrupted to give him the chance, the fairy slowly shrank back, now feeling foolish for showing concern when Thorin clearly didn't need it.

"It's all right, lassie," Balin smiled sadly as he regarded her. "We appreciate your worry, but this tale is no secret."

"I wasn't worrying—" was Aureth's automatic denial but she quickly cut herself off before she could overreact. "… I see. Ignore me then."

"As I was saying," Balin nodded, his beam fading as he recalled the tale, "Thrain, Thorin's father, was driven mad by grief, and he went missing, taken prisoner or killed, we do not know. We were leaderless. Defeat and death were upon us."

Gaze drifting to the side, Aureth startled when she realized several of the other dwarves had woken up while Balin was talking, all of them wearing identical melancholy expressions.

Aureth closed her eyes, blocking out the sight of their faces. She had heard a good number of sob stories, enough that frankly Aureth was tired of showing sympathy however twisted that was. It was precisely the self-awareness that she was corrupt that kept Aureth's eyes shut, the fairy too afraid to meet any of the dwarves' eyes lest they saw the apathy in her liquid gaze.

"…That is when I saw him: a young dwarf prince facing down the Pale Orc. He stood alone against this terrible foe, his armor rent, wielding nothing but an oaken branch as a shield."

 _Oakenshield_. Foxlike gray eyes opened in realization.

"Azog the Defiler learned that day that the line of Durin will not be so easily broken."

A hush fell among the dwarves who had all woken up now and several pairs of eyes gazed out to the cliff where their leader still stood apart from them. Balin wore a smile now though it was a bit pained as he continued.

"Our forces rallied and drove the Orcs back. Our enemy had been defeated, but there was no feast nor song that night for our dead were beyond the count of grief. We few had survived… and I thought to myself then, there is _one_ who I could follow. There is _one_ I could call King."

Despite their usual inability to keep quiet while they were awake, the dwarves—none of whom were still sleeping at this point—stayed deliberately silent even as Balin appeared to finish. Several of them had gotten to their feet and now stared out at Thorin's silhouette in quiet awe as the leader turned around to face them.

"And the Pale Orc?" Bilbo spoke up, the anxiety that had gripped him earlier surprisingly gone and replaced by a humbled amazement much like the rest of the company. "What happened to him?"

Thorin had begun walking back to them, the dwarves parting to make way like the Red Sea, and when he spoke, his tone was hard with resolve, "He slunk back to the hole from whence he came. That _filth_ died of his wounds long ago."

The finality in his voice seemed to signal the other dwarves to snap out of their reverie and make themselves useful if they weren't going to sleep and while they did so, Aureth caught Gandalf's gaze as the wizard looked at her. Something about his gaze annoyed the fairy, the subtly smug twinkle in his eyes suggesting that he knew she'd now been baited far enough in that she would not so easily slip out. The most irritating part was that Aureth couldn't come up with a good argument against him.

Fairies of old had a habit of finding and becoming invested in mortal heroes—particularly human ones—and that habit was the first crack leading to the rapid collapse of the Avika. Perhaps even now Aureth, no matter how far removed she was from her origin, still carried deep within her the curse of her people, the inevitable attraction to and urge to meddle in the struggle and triumph of those fragile flames called mortals.

* * *

 _A/N: Extra long chapter for those of you who are still here lmao OvO I haven't updated this story in so long that I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of you have moved on. But to those who are still here, thank you! And you guys are actual legends omg I haven't written for the Hobbit is a long time, but I hope that's not too noticeable in the quality of this chapter ahaha... Thanks for reading, and please drop me a review if you enjoyed~_


	7. Grudge

_Grudge_

The company shivered wet and cold in the downpour, squinting into the distance to follow the red light of Aureth's wing as the thick clouds and trees around them cast the forest in shadow. Sheets of rain came down so densely that the fairy's figure several meters in front of them blurred and only the pulsing glow of her wing which she had extended out as a light source could be seen.

Most of the dwarves had endured the beginning of the storm by holding coats over their heads but as the rain kept pouring, the coats became more and more useless.

Making a noise of frustration, Oin gave up holding up his cloak and shoved the soaked through fabric away because at this point, it was contributing to the cold rather than preventing it.

"Mr. Gandalf, can't you do something about this deluge?" Dori demanded as politely as he could, given that he was about ready to follow Oin's example.

Unlike the rest of them, the wizard had a hat with a rim wide enough to actually keep his face relatively dry and he replied is a tone far too breezy for the rest of the company's liking, "It is raining, Master Dwarf! And it will continue to rain until the rain is done."

"Can someone ask Miss Aureth to come back here?" Ori squeaked softly, voice trembling with the cold. "We could really use that fire right about now."

"For the _last time_ ," Aureth yelled from somewhere farther up the forest trail, "however much my wing looks like fire, it is _not_."

"How did she hear that?" an alarmed Dori whispered.

"There are probably many things Aureth has heard that you don't know about, Master Dori," Gandalf supplied helpfully, going to light his pipe but then realizing he couldn't because both his pipe and the herbs inside were too wet to catch fire.

"Just the visual would be enough!" Gloin called out to the fairy. "Don't you know the body can be tricked into feeling warm if it thinks a fire a close by?"

"Do you think she heard what I said yesterday about her cooking?" a suddenly flustered Kili whispered urgently to his brother.

"I'm hired as a scout, not a fake heater or a _cook_ ," Aureth responded, revealing that yes, she had also heard what Kili was whispering about, and her tone making it clear that she was done with this conversation. "Please do not make outrageous requests, Master Klein."

Several of the dwarves badly hid their snickers while Gloin's face heated up.

"My name is _Gloin_! And what do you mean outrageous—"

Even Thorin cracked a smile at Aureth misremembering Gloin's name which was so blatantly on purpose. "Enough, Gloin," he held the red-haired dwarf back before he could ride forward and give the fairy a piece of his mind. "You can surely endure a few hours more of this weather. The fairy was hired her recon ability, not for her wings."

Gloin opened his mouth to reply but then paused before reluctantly closing it out of respect for Thorin, just settling with grumbling to himself quietly.

"I agree," Balin nodded to Thorin, "I can't help but feel it disrespectful to the lassie to rely on her wing too much. We should all understand that a fairy's wings are not a plaything."

Up ahead, Aureth appeared to have disappeared over a hill as the red light of her wing could no longer by seen, and suddenly it became painfully clear to the dwarves how lost the company would have been without the warm glow to lead them.

"I just wanted you to know that I defended your cooking, Miss Aureth!" Fili called desperately—albeit a little late—into the rain, hoping to strongly differentiate himself from his brother who now had a strong chance of being on the fairy's blacklist given the choice words he had for the stew she had been in charge of making for dinner last night.

"That's cute. You all think I have feelings," Aureth's responded indifferently as she reappeared over the hill and began to walk back towards them. "Judging by the wind direction, the rain will lighten soon. Over that hill, there's a descent down a medium sized cliff. From there, it looks like the next landmark is an abandoned village and beyond that, the forest ends at the Ford of Bruinen."

"How far to that abandoned village?" Thorin asked.

"I reckon three leagues."

"You could see that far?" Ori asked, amazed.

"We'll wait a few hours after the rain settles and then descend the cliff safely," Thorin said, an unreadable look in his eyes. "Afterwards, we'll head for the village and decide our direction from there."

"We are not heading for Bruinen?" Aureth, whose mind had automatically identified Bruinen and the Hidden Valley as good stop locations, asked, genuine confusion furrowing her brows. "How else will we pass through Rivendell?"

Thorin's gaze was coolly detached as he looked her straight in the eye, his slight height over her on his mount making his expression look unbelievably arrogant, "Why do you assume we will naturally pass through _that_ place?"

"Tch," Aureth's eyes narrowed at the sudden unpleasant tone with which he addressed her and the end of one of her eyebrows twitched as she replied in the most condescending manner she could muster, "Excuse me for looking for the easiest, most efficient route to the Lonely Mountain and keeping an eye on our bloody supply inventory."

"I am ordering you to find a route that _avoids_ that place," Thorin hardly wavered despite Aureth's protest and if anything he seemed to become even haughtier with each word much to Aureth's agitation.

The fairy glowered as she quickly lost the will to even _try_ to understand such a stupid decision, and she directed her attention to Gandalf, hoping he would back her up, but one look at the sympathy in his eyes and Aureth could tell that the wizard had already exhausted this argument with Thorin.

Seeing as no one else had any objections to voice, Thorin turned away from Aureth and briskly rode past her. It took all of Aureth's willpower not to startle his pony has he passed.

* * *

Following Thorin's orders, the company reached the abandoned village Aureth was talking about—which turned out to simply be one home with a couple of farmhouses than an actual village—by the end of the next day. Although there were still a few hours of daylight left, Thorin gave the instruction to set up camp for the night there, and the majority of the party sighed in relief at the early rest.

"Fili, Kili, look after the ponies. Make sure you stay with them," Thorin was saying as Gandalf curiously wandered over to the ruins of the nearest farmhouse. "Oin, Gloin, get a fire going."

Aureth narrowed her eyes at Gandalf's strange interest in the ruins and quietly approached him, half interested in what he was looking at and half hoping she could skip out on getting ordered to help with setting up camp, uninteresting grunt work that Aureth subconsciously felt herself above. "Gandalf …?"

"A farmer and his family lived here…" the wizard murmured, tilting his head up to get a good look at the old structure.

Aureth followed his gaze but couldn't see anything noteworthy. "And that means…?"

When the wizard at last met her gaze, Aureth detected something quite foreign in his eyes, a deeply rooted discomfort that she had never seen disturb him before. "I think it would be best for us to move on…"Gandalf raised his voice for the last part so as to catch the attention of the dwarves scattered in the vicinity. "We can make for the Hidden Valley."

 _That's what I said._ Aureth couldn't help but sigh as this circular conversation started again.

"I told you already," Thorin marched up the steps to where Gandalf and Aureth were, "I will _not_ go near that place."

"Why not?" Gandalf demanded, "The elves could help us. We could get food, rest, advice."

Aureth felt like throwing her hands up in the air to cheer the wizard on.

"I do not need their _advice_."

While Thorin's voice grew progressively more aggressive and dangerous, Gandalf did a better job at staying calm, presenting his arguments objectively, "We have a map that we cannot read. Lord Elrond could help us."

" _Help_?" the word evidently triggered Thorin's rage and the dwarf stepped up closer to the Gandalf, nudging a sour Aureth out of the way. "A dragon attacks Erebor and what help came from the elves? Orcs plunder Moria, desecrate our sacred halls… the elves looked on and did _nothing_. You ask me to seek out the very people who betrayed my grandfather and my father."

" _You_ are neither of them," Gandalf kept his voice low, perhaps to not make a scene as most the dwarves and Bilbo haven't noticed the argument yet, but he practically bit out his next words, "I did not give you that map and key for you to hold on to the past!"

"I did not know they were yours to keep."

Thorin barely finished his rebuttal before it became evident that Gandalf's patience had snapped, and the wizard was already stomping away in anger much to Aureth and Bilbo's—who had just taken noticed of Gandalf's foul mood—horror.

"E-Everything all right?" the hobbit called as the wizard stormed past him, "Gandalf, where are you going?"

"To seek the company of the only one around here who's got any sense!" was Gandalf's exasperated reply which he spoke without even turning around.

 _Am I not right here?_ Aureth made a bewildered face, wondering what the hell she did wrong for Gandalf to not consider her sensible.

"Who's that?" Bilbo asked.

"Myself, Mr. Baggins! I've had _enough_ of dwarves for one day."

The company watched Gandalf disappear into the woods nearby and while the dwarves didn't show much concern, shrugging before going back to their work, Bilbo was a ball of nerves, looking around for any sort of reassurance, "I-Is he coming back?"

Neither Aureth nor any of the dwarves could answer him. Instead, the fairy plastered the most plastic smile on her face before chirping to Thorin, "Well, that was handled _spectacularly_."

Thorin shot her a hooded glare before turning and walking away without dignifying her comment with a response.

* * *

Deep into the night, Aureth sat by the fire where Bombur and Bofur cooked soup, occasionally glancing to her left where Gandalf disappeared off to and then to the right where she'd last seen Thorin before he too—she assumed—vanish off somewhere to brood.

"Look at them, sulking like children," Aureth muttered darkly when once again, she saw no sign of either of their returns.

Bilbo who had been hanging out around the edge of their camp, looking out for the wizard's reappearance, came stumbling back a moment later, very much trying to keep his anxiety under control, "He's been gone a long time…"

"Who?" Bofur replied with nonchalance as he tasted the soup he had been stirring.

"Gandalf," the hobbit answered somewhat exasperated by the lack of concern his companions were showing.

"He's a wizard! He does as he chooses," Bofur said dismissively as he focused on not spilling the soup as he scooped two bowls. "Here, do us a favor and take this to the lads."

Bilbo sputtered a little as the two bowls were pushed into his hands, and he was given a gentle nudge in the general direction where Fili and Kili had been sent off to look after the ponies. He looked like he wanted to protest but when it became clear that no one was paying attention to him anymore, the hobbit huffed and dutifully marched off with the soup.

"Do you think Thorin's calmed down by now?" Aureth asked no one in particular, as several dwarves began gathering around the fire, lured by the smell of food. The fairy turned the idea of going to look for him over and inside her head. Between a dwarf and a wizard, the former would no doubt be much easier to find, and Aureth needed at least one of them to come back and direct the party because _she_ wasn't a leader and Bilbo definitely wasn't one either. "Maybe I should go search for him."

Meanwhile, Bofur scooped several more bowls of soup, "I would imagine so. Sometimes he just needs some time to himself. If you're going to go look for him, bring this to him, will you?"

Aureth frowned down at the bowl of soup the dwarf shoved at her and thought about just how stupid she would look wondering through the woods at night holding it. After making an unimpressed face at Bofur, however, she reluctantly got up; at least delivering the soup made a good excuse if Thorin didn't want to see her.

* * *

As expected, Thorin didn't hide very well, and Aureth found him seated against the base of the farmhouse furthest away from where the company made camp. From there, the leader could keep an eye on the company by their shadows around the cooking fire while staying out of their sight.

The flash of gold that disappeared into his coat as he noticed the fairy's approach told her that he had probably been fiddling with the key he got from Gandalf and quickly put it away to keep it from her prying eyes.

Not that Aureth really cared about his family heirlooms and whatnot enough to look, but she at least had the decency to pretend she didn't see if only to make Thorin relax. "Soup," she said as a greeting, bending down to hand him the steaming bowl.

Thankfully, Thorin's mood seemed to have settled to a more agreeable level, and he looked more pensive than annoyed when he looked from the soup to Aureth's face before taking the bowl. Mild skepticism flashed across his countenance though as he examined its contents with his spoon.

"Don't worry, I didn't make it," Aureth said drily as she straightened and leaned her back against the building behind her, looking out straight ahead and making no move to leave. "Bofur did."

"I see," Thorin chuckled and Aureth knew she had guessed his thoughts correctly. He had a nice laugh, mellow and low.

A surprisingly comfortable silence fell between them save for the singing of summer crickets, occasional bird call, and muffled chatter of the company far away but Aureth purposefully spoke up before the quiet could truly settle.

"You know, if you really hated Rivendell that much, you could have told me sooner. We could have avoided the forest and traveled along Hoarwell instead."

Thorin paused in the middle of blowing his soup to cool it down, sharp blue gaze flickering up to gauge Aureth's expression. "I did not expect you to be so compliant."

"I am not on the wizard's side if that's what you mean," Aureth replied, still not meeting his gaze and instead keep her eyes fixed at the forest and sky before her, "at least not after I know exactly why you wish to avoid Elrond and his kin. It may be difficult for me to relate to such grudges, but I think they are a valid reason. I just wish you made it known to me sooner so these last few days wouldn't have been wasted."

"They are not wasted. There are plenty of ways to go around Rivendell even from here."

 _There is a fine line between stubbornness and blindness._ Aureth sighed and closed her eyes momentarily as if to calm herself down, "This is where you will find that I have the empathy capacity of a teaspoon." After pushing herself from the stone wall which she was leaning on, she turned to face Thorin directly, eyes cool as glass. "I can accept a detour to satisfy your grievances, but I cannot accept purposely going around _a gold mine of information and supplies when we are already at its doorsteps._ Is it too much to ask that you act like a leader and use your head instead of your broken heart?"

"Do not act as though you are above me," Thorin growled, flickers of blue fire returning to his eyes. "With a life as long as yours, I wouldn't be surprised if you have more grudges than all the rest of us combined."

For some reason, the more Thorin accused her of arrogance, the more prideful Aureth became if only to push his buttons more. Tilting her chin up even though she was already taller than Thorin, she spoke coldly, "It is precisely because I have lived so long that I don't hold on to such petty feelings."

"You are trying to tell me there is no one you resent in this world. Looking at your left wing, I cannot believe that."

Aureth's back instinctively tensed at the sudden mention of her maimed left side, the sharp jab of Thorin's words hitting a part of her so unguarded—for she never thought someone would dare to strike there—that the fairy lost her breath for a moment and barely restrained herself from subconsciously taking a step back.

Looking at Aureth's reaction to his words, Thorin's glare wavered ever so slightly at the sudden turmoil and panic in the fairy's usual calm, watchful eyes, a horrific reaction that Thorin himself caused, but he quickly looked away and repaired his resolve. His lips pressed together stubbornly, refusing to let himself backpedal.

A long moment passed in which the dwarf was sure Aureth would turn away and be done with him, but the fairy didn't move.

Finally, she spoke, but her lowered voice and significantly slower speech made it clear she was holding everything under very tight control, choosing her words carefully, "If you must know, the man who did this to me is dead now, not because I killed him but because time took him."

Thorin didn't show any reaction to her unexpected honesty other than a subtle tensing in his shoulders.

"Time will take you too, believe it or not," Aureth, gaze faraway, cracked a smile-not a smile that made fun of Thorin's mortality but one that seemed to indicate somewhere deep in her soul, she had made peace with this truth. "Just as it does nothing for me to hate a man who will eventually inevitably meet his end, your mortal resentment toward the immortal elves does nothing. Do you plan to hate them for the rest of your life?"

Although there was still a subtly superior tone to Aureth's voice that rubbed Thorin the wrong way, this last question at least sounded like a genuine inquiry, and the dwarf subconsciously felt the need to truly consider his answer. Somehow, when put into such simple terms by the fairy, the situation seemed almost shallow, and Thorin paused as he sensed the implications of his answer.

Aureth seemed satisfied when Thorin couldn't give an immediate response and some faith in his good judgement returned to her. She glanced over at the dwarf for the first time in a long while to make sure he was listening as she opened her mouth again, "My life is too long to be spent hating a mortal. Your life is too short to be spent hating the immortal. I may not be the most qualified person to say this, but… Why don't you open your eyes and use them to take a good look at what is in front of you before they close forever?"

As Aureth fell silent, the wind blew, carrying the laughter of the dwarves around their campfire from far away and masking the sound of Thorin's soft sigh. He closed his eyes as if in contemplation, but Aureth could not tell for sure what he was thinking.

The dwarf wasn't immediately coming back at her with a retort, and Aureth supposed that was a good sign. Even if Thorin's pride was keeping him silent, Aureth considered herself satisfied.

"Look," she began, "Whether I look like it or not, I want this mission to succeed."

"Why?" Thorin's gaze flashed at her, and the intelligence in his eyes has never been more prominent.

Aureth thought about what the most strategic answer was, and then thought for sure that Thorin would be able to tell if she lied, so she replied without a beat of hesitation, "The prize money, of course."

He held her gaze for a few seconds as if making sure her answer was truthful before turning away, something about his demeanor relaxing but also growing a bit more distant, "As I thought. What other reason do you have to remain loyal to us?"

An uncomfortable formed in Aureth's throat, and she swallowed thickly, finding it strangely difficult to force her next words out, but she did, "I will not try to justify myself, but it is good to know we are on the same page here."

"You will get your treasure," Thorin assured, but it sounded like a cold, begrudging business promise rather than anything warm or reassuring.

"Yes," and Aureth meant it.

For all his obstinance and arrogance, Thorin did not seem the type of man to go back on his word. He is much too proud, had too much self-respect to sully his honor, and Aureth found that no matter how unpleasant he is in other aspects, she could never truly hate him as long as those qualities remained.

The silence between them became suffocating quickly, and Aureth was just in the middle of deciding whether to try remedying the situation or just abort the mission when the sound of hurrying footsteps approached behind her.

Both Aureth and Thorin looked up to see Dwalin jogging toward them, his face pale as he came to a stop before them.

"Thorin, we've got a problem."

* * *

 _A/N: Hello, dear reader! Thanks for your patience and for making it to the end of this chapter ^^ I'm afraid nothing really happened in this chapter, but I hope you liked these original scenes~ How am I doing writing Thorin and Aureth? Please let me know in a review! I'm always so self-conscious about their interactions because this is a Thorin/OC/(eventual) Thranduil fic and I know how painful it is to read a romance story where the interactions are kind of "meh." Please give me your honest opinion! I'll do my best depending on what you all tell me! Again, thanks for reading~ See you next time! 3_


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